THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 33, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 33

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

tsmaat tvam uttishtha yaso labhasva

     jitvaa satroon bhundshva raajyam samrrddham

mayai ‘vai ‘te nihataah poorvam eva

     nimitamaatram bhava savyasaachin

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

tasmaat = therefore: tvam = thou: uttishtha = stand up: yasah = fame: labhasva = obtain: jitvaa = having conquered: satroon = enemies: bhunkshva = enjoy: raajyam = the kingdom: samrrddham = the unrivalled: mayaa = by me: eva = even: ete = these: nihataah = have been slain: poorvam = already: eva =even: nimitta maatram = a mere instrument: bhava = be: savyasaachin = O left-handed one.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

You therefore arise and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy the unrivalled kingdom. By Me have they been verily slain already. You be merely an outward cause, O Savyasachin.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The Lord’s work does not depend on the agency of man for its fulfilment. Precisely and effectively it takes place of its own accord. Man but earns merit by participating in it. By rising equal to an occasion and by discharging his duty, man emerges the better for it. By availing himself of the opportunities and facilities providentially provided in the training ground of this world, man builds his personality. And that is his gain in being a willing instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Fame is not an end in itself. It comes as a by-product of an exemplary and dutiful life. The man of sterling character and noble deeds is praised by all even as a fully blossomed flower is admired by all.

Opposing evil and vanquishing it is the duty of a Kshatriya. The Lord’s design here is conducive to this auspicious end.

Properous earthly life is no detriment to spiritual progress. Rather it is a stepping stone to Sreyas. Earthly kingdom conquered by conforming to dharma is a rare achievement. Efficient and prosperous protection of the kingdom enriches man’s life temporally and spiritually.

The Lord has willed to wipe out wickedness from the world. Arjuna is no more confronted with any uphill task. It is more than sufficient if he merely makes a show of waging the war. The total destruction of the enemies will be the result. But Arjuna is not a man of mediocre stuff. He is a Savyasachin (ambidexterous)—one who can make a deadly delivery of the arrow with the left hand even. He is invincible in war. The opportune moment has come to him to show his valour. By being an instrument in the hands of the Lord, he can gain the glory of having defeated Drona and Bhishma. Right action at right time leads to victory, prosperity and blessedness.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The God of destiny decides and ordains all things and Arjuna is to be the instrument, the flute under the fingers of the Omni-mighty evolution. Arjuna is self-deceived if he believes that he should act according to his own imperfect judgment. No individual soul can encroach on the prerogative of God. In refusing to take up arms, Arjuna is guilty of presumption. See XVIII, 58.

Nimittamaatram: merely the occasion. The writer seems to uphold the doctrine of Divine predestination and indicate the utter helplessness and insignificance of the individual and the futility of his will and effort. The decision is made already and Arjuna can do nothing to change it. He is a powerless tool in God’s hands, and yet there is the other note that God is not arbitrary and capricious but just and loving. How are the two to be reconciled? The numinous idea of the predestinating and solely acting God which induces in us the feeling of the utter dependence on God, the “wholly other” standing over against us in absolute antithesis, is here expressed. The intense intuivtion of the power of God  comes out here and in Job and in Paul: “Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?”

We need not look upon the whole cosmic process as nothing more than the unfolding of a predetermined plan, the unveiling of a ready-made scenario. The writer here is not so much deying of eternity in which all the moments of the whole of time, past, present and future, are present to the Divine Spirity. The radical novelty of each moment of evolution in time is not inconsistent with Divine Eternity.

The ideas of God are worked out through human instrumentality. If we are wise, we so act that we are instruments in His hands. We allow Him to absorb our soul and leave no trace of the ego. We must receive His comman and do His will with the cry “In thy will is our peace”; “Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.” Arjuna should feel, “Nothing exists save Thy will. Thou alone art the doer and I am only the instrument.” The dread horror of the war repels him. Judged by human standards, it is quite incomprehensible but when the curtain is lifted, so as to reveas the purpose of the Almighty, he acquiesces in it. What he himself desired, what he m ight hope to gain in this world or the next do not count any mre. Behind this world of space-time, interpenetrating it, is the creative purpose of God. We must understand that supreme design and be content to serve it. Every act is a symbol of something far beyond itself.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Be thou merely an apparent or nominal cause. I have already killed them in advance. Drona and the other great warriors whom even the gods cannot kill have been defeated by you and so you will obtain great fame. Such fame is due to virtuous Karma only.

Satrun: Enemies such as Duryodhana.

Savyasachi: Aruna who could shoot arrows even with the left hand.

Comments by the blogger:

You may be slightly bewildered by the Text and Commentaries and ask your faithful self that if all actions and activities belong to God and we are just instruments in His able Hands: You are faithful but the above arguments are not absolutely convincing, you may think. You might ask faithfully, that is, without losing faith in the Holy Gita, if Arjuna need not slain his enemies as God has already slain them, but it would suffice if Arjuna deigns to be a mere instrument in God’s Hands, then what about the acts of rapists and thieves? You might, without loosing faith in Sri Krishna, ask if all act rightfully belong to God and we are just Instruments in His Hands, where is the freedom of action involved in the conception of the Universe and Its revolution? Because I have argued even at the outset that God’s greatness specially consists in creating us and giving free will to act which is measured by the accumulation of Samskaras and they in their own way become our prarabtha karma which holds important place in whose family we incarnate in our next birth.

Well the Lord indeed gives us free will to act. As Srimat Swami Chidbhavananda pointed out in the beginning of his commentary, the act of a lamp burning might be used by some people to read a Text like  Bhagavad Gita while the same light might be used by others to forge a document, or plot to indulge in some heinous crime. The lamp has no say in which way we, human beings, choose to use the light emenating from the Lamp. This presupposes the existence of free will on the part of the individual human beings. If we are just instruments in God’s hands how could the commissions of heinous crimes like murdering or raping and murdering a girl? Does God acts thorough those rapists in the act of raping? Never. Then how can we reconcile the Text, this 33^rd sloka? Unless there is a fair amount of free will given to the individual human beings heinous acts such as rape cannot be explained.

OK, so God gives us freedom of action then how could we explain the Lord’s words in sloka number 33 of the Gita, chapter 11? We will see that tomorrow! We need to discuss this aspect in some detail. So, my friends, visit this site tomorrow for the continuation of my argument.