THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 31, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 31

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

aakhyaahi me ko bhavaan ugraroopo

     namo ‘stu te devavara prasida

vijnaatum icchaami bhavantam aadyam

     na hi prajaanaami tava pravrttim

SANSKRI WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

aakhyaahi = tell: me = me: kah = who (art): bhavaan = thou: ugra roopah = fierce in form: namah = salutations: astu = be: te = thee: devavara = O God supreme: praseeda = have mercy: vijnaatum = to know: icchaami = (I) wish: bhavantam = thee: aadyam = the original being: na = not: hi = indeed: prajaanaami = (I) know: tava = thy: pravrttim = doing:

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Tell me who You are, so fierce in form. I bow down to You, O God Supreme; have mercy. I desire to know You, the Primal One. I know not Your Purpose.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHDBHAVANANDA:

The calm, charming and beautiful form of God attracts the devotees. Being drawn to Him in this way is deemed as devotional worship. His terrific form arrests the attention of the devotee in another way. And getting absorbed in it is also a form of worship. The fully qualified devotee is he who with equal devotion and absorption. Fear is conquered by the worship of the  fearful. But Arjuna like many an ordinary devotee is not prepared for the worship of the Terrible.

That Iswara is everything is being realized by Arjuna. But what all phases are comprised in that everything, is not known to him and it is impossible for h im to know. A man and his activities are interrelated. Knowing his activities is one of the ways of knowing the man, to some extent at least. Similarly God can be known in a way through His doings. And that is the supplication that Arjuna makes. The Lord deigns to reveal His purpose.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The disciple seeks for deeper knowledge.

Comments by the blogger:

We have already seen that Arjuna gains the inner eye only for the specific purpose of witnessing God’s Visvarupa or Cosmic Form. But Arjuna is not the same person as we noticed him at the beginning of the Gita teaching. At the beginning Arjuna was a confused and confounded lot. He had the sentimental senility which made him unable to fight. He stacked up his arguments as to why he should not fight this war which will kill all his kith and kin and also the elders fit to be worshiped. He was prepared to go around the world like a sanyasi with a beggar’s bowl in hands. Then started the teaching of Gita by his Master, Sri Krishna. With the conclusion of the  tenth chapter all his delusions have evaporated and Arjuna becomes capable of fighting. At this juncture Arjuna wants to know more about the Lord of Gita and begs the Lord to show him His Cosmic Form. And the Lord gives Arjuna the benefit of the inner eye and vision. Then the Lord shows His Cosmic Form. Arjuna gets the jitters notwithstanding the inner eye because he was not a consummate Yogi having practised meditation for years together. So, instead of going into raptures and ecstasy in front of the all-devouring Cosmic Form, Arjuna trembles in his shoes. He wants his Lord Master to return to His original form with the Discus and the Conch.

Swami Vivekananda in his able Commentary on Raja Yoga states that Yogis practise meditation for years together and their Kundalini Power gets awackened step by step. Thus when they reach the pinnacle attains the last state having his meditating point in the head there is pure ecstasy. And to such Yogis all the questions about creation and what would happen after death and every other thing is revealed. Since the Yogis’ concentration and consciousness have been lifted from the testicles up toward the chakra in the head, the yogis are not bewildered. Instead of that, the Yogis get gnana or wisdom and they come at last to know the nature of God, who He is and what is the relationship between the Yogis and the Ultimate Lord of the Universe. But, as pointed out by Swami Vivekananda, in some rare cases the practitioner of meditation jump up and tumble on the higher state of consciousness purely accidentally. The Swami even points out that Prophet Mohammed was one such Yogis! Swami Vivekananda describes the effect of the Yogi who has jumped up and attained a higher state of consciousness: the swami states  that in such cases the particular Yogi is bewildered and instead of continuing with his Practice of Yoga and Meditation they mistake the stage of spiritual attainment onto which they have accidentally landed for the Ultimate attainment of Gnana or Wisdom and stagnate at this stage of consciousness without trying to continue with their meditation and travel further up till the attainment of Gnana or quintessential Wisdom or full realization of God.

Arjuna gains inner sight and wisdom for the specific purpose of seeing and witnessing the Lord’s Cosmic Form. He has been promoted to this stage. Hence the utter fear, trembling and trepidation on his part. Arjuna, instead of enjoying the sight of the Lord’s Cosmic Form, gets frightened and asks the Lord in Cosmic Form as to who He is! And there is a prayer for the Lord to get back to his normal form and appearance! There is no ecstasy on the part of Arjuna.