Bhagavatgita a detyailed study-chaper10-The glory of the divine manifestations

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Sree Bhagavan uvaacha

19. hantha the kaThayishyaami dhivyaa

hyaathamvibhoothayaH

praaDhaanyathaH kuruSreshTa nasthyantho vistharasaya me

The Lord said,

Alas! I will tell you about my divine manifestations, the prominent ones. Oh the best of the Kurus, there is no end to my manifestations.

hantha means alas! It denotes only pleasant surprise here. Even though everything is the manifestation of the Lord all are not divine manifestations. Those which display His power glory, jnana, sovereignty and lustre etc. are the divine manifestations. Even they are numerous says the Lord and He picks out the prominent ones. This is the answer to the request of Arjuna to tell him about the manifestations in detail. The word hantha may also be interpreted as expressing the impossibility to describe all His manifestations in detail.

20.ahamaathmaa gudaakesa sarvabhoothaaSayasThithaH

aham aadhiScha maDhyam cha bhoothaanaam antha evacha

I am the inner self of all, Oh Arjuna, seated inside all beings. I am the beginning, middle and the end of all beings.

The word referring to Arjuna is gudakeSa, which means the one who has conquered sleep. Arjuna during his thapas has conquered sleep and from then he came to be called Gudakesa. The significance of this name here is that just like he conquered sleep he should be able to conquer the ignorance also which is similar to sleep.

aham aathmaa sarvabhoothaasayasThithah-Krishna explains here the reason why His manifestations are innumerable. He is the inner self of all and hence everything is His manifestation only. Hence the question of Arjuna `keshu keshu cha bhaaveshu chinthyo asi,' in which of the manifestation He is to be contemplated , is difficult to answer because the enumeration of the manifestations is not possible.

Krishna further explains His transcendence and immanence by saying that that he is the aadhi, antha and madhya of all beings, being the creator, annihilator and the sustainer of all.

As the Upanishad says, yatho vaaimaani bhoothaani jaayanthe , from whom all these beings originate, He is the aadhi, beginning, yena jaathaani jeevanthi, by whom those born are sustained by His being the inner self of all, He is the madhya, their middle and yasmin abhisamvisanthi, in whom everything merges back, He is the antha, end.

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.

From the next sloka onwards Krishna explains the immanence of the Supreme Self by pointing out the prominent among all the entities and says that He is that.