Bhagavatgita-chapter14-adhyaya10

March 18, 2007

Chapter14-Glory of manifestation -(adhyaya10)-

The tenth and eleventh adhyayas of the Gita serve to induce devotion and in the twelfth adhyaya bhakthiyoga is elaborated. The transcendence and imminence of the Lord is made explicit in the two adhyayas. The tenth is called vibhoothiyoga in which the manifestations of the divine glory are enumerated corresponding to the vision of the Lord in everything while the eleventh adhyaya is called the visvaroopadarsana in which Krishna shows Arjuna the cosmic form. Hence both the adhyayas taken together illustrates the truth that The Lord is in everything and everything is in Him respectively.

Krishna starts telling Arjuna about His greatness as the Lord of the Universe, which is not understood even by the great rshis and devas because He is the source of them all. After imparting the sovereign learning and secret of the supreme reality, Krishna tries to make it easier by elucidating again on this topic by saying 'bhooya Eva mahAbAhO srnu me paramam vachah, listen again to my word of supreme wisdom which I tell you out of love,' which is the reason for further elaboration.

Krishna then proceeds to explain the knowledge of His real nature which is inexplicable even to the devas and rshis. The impediment to the understnding of the real nature of Brahman is the moha ,delusion. In Ramavathara and Krishnavathara there were only very few who had the insight to see the divinity in Rama and Krishna. and this was possible only through devotion.Jnana or knowledge born of devotion removes the delusion of perceiving the mortal form in the divine incarnations.

Once a man gets free from delusion he is able to understand that the Lord is unborn, aja, without beginning, anAdhi, and is the Lord of the universe.Such knowledge born out of right perception through devotion removes all sins, says Krishna, because such a person is no longer attached either to his action or its result and hence is not affected by it.Thus by meditating on the real nature of the Lord through devotion all impediments , namely those born out of past karma giving rise to sin, are washed away.

This devotion can only be developed through meditation on the supreme power and the multitudes of attributes denoted by the innumerable manifestations of divinity. All qualities like intelligence, knowledge ,selfcntrol,truth, patience, pleasure and exaltation etc and also the adverse qualities like pain depression and fear, etc arise only from the divine, meaning, through divine will.And also the agents of creatio like the manus and sapthrshis, whose descendents are the living beings of the whole universe , also emerged from the Lord only.Krishna says that the one who knows this truth becomes united with the divine with unshakable devotion.

The yogins mentioned above worship the Lord with devotion seeing that He is the source of all and everything proceeds from Him only.The state of such in bhakthiyoga is described as 'macchitthA madgathaprANAh bhODHayanthah parasparam ; kaThayanthascha mAm nithyam thushyanthi cha ramanthi cha.' Their mind is absorbed in the Lord. Their entire life force is directed towards Him only.They inspire one another by talking about the Lord always, enjoying it and live in contentment. When one reaches that state, says the Lord,'dadhAmi buddhiyogam tham yEna mAm upayAnthi thE.' To those who are united with Him and worship Him with intense love the Lord gives the jnana through which they attain Him. They need no other effort for salvation than bhakthi, because the Lord distroys the darkness of their ignorance by the lamp of knowledge,'aham ajnAnajam thamah nASayAmi AthmabhAvasThah jnAna dheeENa bhAsvathA.' He, established in their heart, inspires them with knowledge that kills the ignorance and enable them to attain the Supreme.

Arjuna is impressed with the divinity of Krishna now , a far cry from saying, 'aparam bhavathO janma param janma vivasvathah' (BG.4-4) and extolls His greatness.

param brahma param DHAma pavithram paramam bhavAn

purusham SASvatham dhivyam AdhidhEvam ajam vibhum

sarvamEthath rtham manye yanmAm vadhasi kesava

na hi thE bhagavan vyakthim vidhurdhEvA na dhAnavah

He says, "The rshis like Narada and Vyasa proclaim that You are the Supreme Brahman,Supreme light and Supreme sanctifier, eternal divine Person , Primal Lord, unborn and all-pervading. So I am convinced that all you have said is true and your glory is not known even to devas or asuras " Hence Arjuna says that only the Lord alone could inform him about His manifestations as He alone knows Himself. Arjuna wants to know in which forms he could perceive the divinity manifested and asks Krishna to relate this in detail. Anticipating Krishna 's possible question as to whether what has been said so far has not been made clear to him, Arjuna says, 'bhooyah kaThaya thrupthirhi srNvathO nAsthimE amrtham,' meaning that he wants Krishna to repeat what has been said because there could be no satiety in hearing nectar-like attributes of the Lord.

Then Krishna starts listing the manifestations of divinity, by pointing out the prominent ones as there is no limit for them and hence an exhaustive enumeration is not possible. The Lord is in everything as its inner self, according to Visishtadvaita and Brahman is identical with the inner self in advaita.Hence the real entity is Brahman itself and hence all means only Brahman in essence.Here Krishna explains the imminence of the Supreme Self by pointing out the prominent among all the entities and says that He is that.

Of the twelve Adhithyas He is Vishnu, the paramount.Of the luminous bodies he is the Sun. He is Marici among the maruts and among the stars He is the Moon.He is the Samaveda among the four vedas, Indra among devas,of the indhriyas He is the mind ( which is also couned as one of the indhriyas) and He is the consciousness in all living beilngs.

He is Sankara among the eleven Rudras and among the yakshas and rakshasas He is Kubera, the head of yakshas.Of the eight vasus He is Agni and Meru among the mountains.Of all the preceptors He is Brhaspathi, the devaguru.He is Skandha among the commanders and the ocean among the reservoirs of water.

He is Brgu among the maharshis and of the speech He is praNava.He is the japayajna of all the sacrifices and among immovable objects He is Himalayas. Among the celestial seers He is Narada and is the banyan tree among all the trees.He is Chitrratha, their king, among the Gandharvas and Kapila among the siddhas.

He is the Vajra among the weapons and the Kamadheu among cows.He is the god of love who causes progeny, Vasuki among serpents and Sesha among the nAgas. (Sarpa or serpents are those which have only one head while the nAgas are those with multiple heads.)

He is Prahladha among asuras and death among the reckoners.Of beasts he is the lion and Garuda among birds.Among the things that move He is the wind ( because wind is the swiftest moving) and Rama among the armed..Of the fish He is the shark and Ganges among the rivers.

The Lord is the beginning, end and the middle of all the created beings and the science of Self among the sciences.He is the reasoning power behind al arguments.

He is the akAra of letters and dvandvasamasa of all the compounds.The akAra has been termed as speech in the upanishads.'akAro vai sarvA vAk.'( aithreya.3.2.3) and the dvandva is mentioned because in that kind of compound both the words joined are of equal importance.He is the imperishable Time and the creator with face everywhere.(meaning the four faced Brahma)

He is the death that carries away everything and the origin of all that is born.Among women He is the fame,prosperity, speech,memory, intelligence, endurance and forgiveness.Fame means good reputation and prosperity of a house depends on the woman and how she is treated.The other qualities are those which give glory to a woman.

Of the saman hymns he is the brhtsaman , the most important one.Similary Gayathri among the chandhas is the Lord .He is the month of Margasira and the spring among the seasons.The month of margasirais important as it is supposed to be the dawn of the devas and hence is sacred on earth. Vasantharthu, spring, is the most beautiful and pleasant to all.

Of the fraudulent He is the gambling.It means that the element of chance that is present in gambling is the will of the Lord.He is the brilliance of the brilliant.He is the victory and effort and great mindedness among the good and generous.

He is Vasudevakrishna among the yadhavas and Arjuna among the pandavas.He is Vyasa among the sages and Sukra among the intuitive.He is the punishment of those who punish and policy of those who wish to win.He is the silence of the secrets and the wisdom of the wise.

Sayint thus Krishna concludes that he is the seed of all beings and nothing movable or immovable can exist without Him. He tells Arjuna that there is no end to His divine manifestations and what has been told so far is only a brief account.Whatever possesses power, splendour or energy should be viewed as a fragment of the power of the Lord. Krishna clinches the issue by saying that He is sustaining the whole universe with a fragment of His power, 'VishtabhyAham idham krthsnam EkAmSEna sTHithO jagath.'

In the next adhyaya the transcendenc of the Lord is disl played by the Cosmic form.