Gita Satsangh Chapter 11 Verses 1 to 2

[Guest guest]

After hearing the glories of the Divine (chapter 10), Arjuna was

motivated and wanted to have the wonderful Cosmic Vision.

 

Arjuna Uvaacha: (Arjuna said)

 

Madanugrahaaya paramam guhyamadhyaatmasamjnitam;

Yattwayoktam vachastena moho'yam vigato mama. Verse 1

 

By this explanation of the highest secret concerning the Self, which

You have spoken out of compassion towards me my delusion is gone.

 

Bhavaapyayau hi bhootaanaam shrutau vistarasho mayaa;

Twattah kamalapatraaksha maahaatmyamapi chaavyayam. Verse 2

 

The origin and the destruction of beings verily have been heard by me

in detail from Thee, O lotus-eyed Lord, and also You inexhaustible

greatness.

 

Note to serious Satsanghis:

Recite first OM three times followed by Guru Stotram and Gita

Dhyanam. Then Chant the two verses provided above along with the

meanings. Contemplate on these two verses and read the details

provided in the Gita File folder for other commentaries. Then you

can provide your questions and comments based on your undersanding.

One of important aspect of the Satsangh is to exchange your personal

experiences that has close resemblence to the reviewed verses.

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Let me follow it up with some additional explanation to verses 1 and

2. Now it is your turn add your observations including questions

based on what you have understood.

 

Harih Om!

 

Ram Chandran

 

Verse 1 explanation:

Arjuna's heart was filled with joy, love and gratitude when he heard

the divine glory of the Lord, who is an ocean of love, revealed by

Him in the beginning of Chapter X with the remark that he was

confiding all that to him out of solicitude for him knowing his

intense love for Him. Arjuna thought how kind it was of the Lord, who

is the supreme Ruler of all the worlds, to acknowledge an

insignificant creature like him as his lover and go on openly

revealing to him the closely guarded secrets of His own glory. He now

remembered the words of the sages, and singing His praises with

utmost faith, he renewed his loving prayer to the Lord for a detailed

description of His power of Yoga and glories. The Lord responded to

his prayer and gave him a brief description of His glories and Yoga.

Arjuna's heart now bore the stamp of divine grace on it. He was

beside himself with joy at this unusual exhibition of divine grace on

him. Arjuna's delusion or ignorance consisted in his lack of full

knowledge of the virtues, glory, power and being of God. Through the

above teachings of the Lord he has now partially realized these

virtues, glory, power, mystery and reality of God and come to know

that Sri Krishna is God Himself. This is what is meant by his

disillusionment.

 

Verse 2 explanation

It is from God that all animate and inanimate beings emanate; it is

by Him that they are maintained and into Him that they all enter.

Arjuna has repeatedly heard this in detail from the lips of the Lord

in Chapters VII to X. This is what he means by the first half of this

verse.

Though creating, maintaining and destroying the whole universe, God

is in reality a non-doer; though controlling all, He is altogether

unconcerned; though all-pervasive, He remains wholly untouched by the

virtues and vices of things; though dispensing the fruits of good and

evil deeds in the shape of joys and sorrows. He is free from the

faults of cruelty and discrimination; and manifested in the forms of

Prakrti (Matter), Kala (Time) and all regional gods, He-is the

almighty Ruler of all. This is the immortal glory of the Lord

referred to in the latter half of the verse.

 

 

advaitin , " Ram Chandran " <ramvchandran

wrote:

>

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Those who are interested to listen to the chanting of Bhagavad Gita

can access the MP3 (downloadable) at Astrojyoti Website at the

following link:

 

http://www.astrojyoti.com/bhagavadgeeta.htm

 

The link also provides you transliteration of Gita verses and its

translation. Gita Links are also available at the

advaitin site:

 

Click on the link:

 

advaitin/links/

 

and click on Scriptures. You can access various scriptures including

Bhagavad Gita sites.

 

One of the important sites for keeping it under your favorite

bookmarks is the following Gita Supersite managed by IIT Kanpur:

 

http://www.gitasupersite.org/

 

Those who want the list add more links on Gita may please forward

them to our dear Sunderji (sunderj) or advaitins.

 

Harih Om!

 

Ram Chandran

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

It seems that the site address, http://www.gitasupersite.org/ takes

to a commercial enterprise. The correct link is the following:

 

http://www.tdil.mit.gov.in/supersite/index.htm

 

My apologies for the unintented errors:

 

Harih Om!

 

Ram Chandran

 

Note: One of the problems in the WEB universe is that any site link

is subject to change. If someone forgets to renew the domain, then

the waiting compeititor gets it and uses it for commercial purposes.

 

advaitin , " Ram Chandran " <ramvchandran

wrote:

>

> One of the important sites for keeping it under your favorite

> bookmarks is the following Gita Supersite managed by IIT Kanpur:

>

> http://www.gitasupersite.org/

>

> Those who want the list add more links on Gita may please forward

> them to our dear Sunderji (sunderj) or advaitins

>

> Harih Om!

>

> Ram Chandran

>

[Guest guest]

Namaste, all

My request, can anybody send me ebook containing moola slokas of gita in

sanskrit, in mota lipi, i.e. big letters? It would be helpful.

Warm regards

 

Ram Chandran <ramvchandran wrote:

Namaste:

 

It seems that the site address, http://www.gitasupersite.org/ takes

to a commercial enterprise. The correct link is the following:

 

http://www.tdil.mit.gov.in/supersite/index.htm

 

My apologies for the unintented errors:

 

Harih Om!

 

Ram Chandran

 

Note: One of the problems in the WEB universe is that any site link

is subject to change. If someone forgets to renew the domain, then

the waiting compeititor gets it and uses it for commercial purposes.

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " R.S.MANI " <r_s_mani wrote:

>

> Namaste, all

> My request, can anybody send me ebook containing moola slokas of gita in

sanskrit, in

mota lipi, i.e. big letters? It would be helpful.

> Warm regards

 

Namaste Maniji,

 

I liked the ones in

http://sanskrit.safire.com/Sanskrit.html

 

Hope they help!

 

Regards

Ramakrishna

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " uramakrsna " <ramakrsn wrote:

>

> advaitin , " R.S.MANI " <r_s_mani@> wrote:

> >

> > Namaste, all

> > My request, can anybody send me ebook containing moola slokas of

gita in sanskrit, in

> mota lipi, i.e. big letters? It would be helpful.

 

 

A foot-note:

 

The font size can be easily adjusted in any PDF file in the pull-down

menu.

 

For files in other formats, click on View Menu and Text Size.

[Guest guest]

Namaste all.

 

First of all, there is something odd about the frequently encountered

translation of Cosmic Vision for VishwarUpa. The right translation

should be Cosmic Form to mean the real rUpa of the vishwa as the

Lord. Otherwise, it might give an impression, which unfortunately

many are getting, that Arjuna had a special vision for some time and

then it vanished without lasting. A rUpa (form) of course is object

for vision. Vision worked by Consciousness substantiates the form.

 

Cosmic refers to the universe (prapanca). There can't be a universe

without space and time. It is space-time continuum that erects the

universe and as well pervades it through and through. Objects and

space-time cannot be separated. In fact, it is a fallacy to think

that they are different.

 

So, if vishwarUpa understood as Cosmic Form is talked about anywhere,

it should necessarily connote an objectification. The talk of time

and space collapsing and everything existing together in no time/no

space sounds to me as irrelevant. That is an impossibility in the

phenomenal. Such statements may go well with our thinking of Brahman

when we are referring to the paramArtha. Not vishwarUpa. In another

direction, the Indian mind, as in several other cases, is vainly

eager to seek approbation for vishwarUpa in the Theory of Relativity

and other later scientific thinking about the origins of the

universe. That also seems irrelevant.

 

If Arjuna could earn the grace of the Lord to see the Cosmic Form,

then that grace is not forbidden to any of us true seekers. It is

our rightful right too.

 

The Mahabharata has another reference to vishwarUpa being unraveled

before the eyes of another mortal. He was none other than the blind

Dhritarashtra, our baddie Duryodhana's dad. When Lord Krishna goes

as an emissary of the Pandavas to talk peace to Duryodhana, the

latter orders his men to bind Krishna and take him prisoner. Krishna

then reveals his Cosmic Form. Duryodhana faints. The blind

Dhritarashtra sees.

 

Why didn't Duryodhana see? Obviously, because he was filled with

ignorance and egotism, whereas his blind father, who had reflected on

the Truth through his days of darkness, could see the light!

 

So what does seeing vishwarUpa – the cosmic form – connote? I would

say it is an implosive appreciation of Reality – a lasting one at

that - born of one's spiritual wisdom. It is the wisdom of the first

ten chapters of BG blossoming in the heart of the 11th.

 

I had long back read a book by Lyall Watson called " The Life Tide " .

Watson has, of course, been severely taken to task by his several

detractors for his " strange claims " . That is another matter.

Nevertheless, his call to envision Planet Earth as a single organism

and witness the life-tide of tumultuous changes taking place on it

has the seeds of our Indian vishwarUpa.

 

Our vishwarUpa is in fact the ultimate spiritual extension of

Watson's biological vision. Here we behold the Lord manifesting

before our eyes as the whole Universe of names and forms in a state

of permanent flux. Time, space, galaxies, black-holes and

singularities, emperors, kings, men, birth, life and death are all

there in it in a state of spin. When the seer is no more there, the

show is light unsurpassed – Consciousness Effulgence. Yet, the

horripilation and awe bring him back again and again to substantiate

the vision, before his individuality loses out again to the

brilliance of Consciousness which project the spinning vision for him

to discern as his hairs bristle in awe.

 

Arjuna used to see the world before and it was just ordinary like it

is for all of us. In the 11th Chapter of BG, Lord's labour through

the first ten pays off as Arjuna gains the wisdom (special power of

vision) to see the world as he should. Vishwa is then Bhagwan only –

through and through. There is nothing else. An awesome insight

indeed. It is a lasting vision of the real rUpa of the Universe as

the Lord and not a fleeting one gained through a special power of

sight.

 

Arjuna's vision is our right too if we are prepared to similarly

plough diligently through the wisdom of the first ten chapters. Once

we see Bhagwan everywhere in everything, the day we say `naSto mohaH'

and lose ourselves completely as does Arjuna in the last chapter is

not far off.

 

It is good that our discussion on the 11th chapter follows a long

debate on Ishwara. Ishwara is the satya of the phenomenal. When He

is really `seen' pervading the phenomenal, vishwarUpa is seen. Till

then, only vishwa is seen as mere objects (rUpAs and not real rUpa).

 

My ten cents of course coined at my personal mint. Apologies if I am

wrong.

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair