Bhagavatgita a detailed study- chapter 11The Cosmic Form

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18. thvam aksharam paramam vedhithavyam

thvam asya viSvasya param niDhaanam

 

thvam avyayaH SaaSvatha Dharmagopthaa

 

sanathanaH thvam purusho matho me

 

You are the imperishable Supreme reality that should be known, you are the supreme receptacle of the whole universe, You are the immutable ever existent protector of dharma and I consider you as the eternal Purusgha.

 

Arjuna understands now that the cosmic form which he sees everywhere all around him is the supreme reality, the imperishable Brahman of which he has been told earlier.

The words of Arjuna reflect what has been said so far in the earlier chapters. The Lord has said in chapter 7, yath jnaathvaa na iha bhooyaH anyath jnanam avaSishyathe (sloka 2), meaning that knowing which there is nothing more to be learnt, that jnanam vinanasahitham, is the experience of Arjuna now and hence he says thvam aksharam paramam vedhithavyam, the imperishable reality described in the eighth chapter, denoted by the above sloka in the seventh chapter.

 

Thus Arjuna is now having the practical demonstration of what has been said so far. Krishna said mathsThaani sarvabhoothaani(ch.9.4) and He is showing that now, which makes Arjuna exclaim thvamasya viSvasya param niDhaanam, you are the abode of the whole world.

 

Taken as a whole the cosmic form of the Lord contains everything that exits, existed and going to exist and hence there could be no mutability in the Lord. Hence He is termed as avyaya by Arjuna.

 

He is the sanathana purusha the eternal being in whom Time has no significance and from Him everything emanates and is activated and hence He is the SaaSvatha dharrna goptha, who has established the nature and action of everything. The word dharma is not used here in the usual meaning but it means the essential nature and actions of everything on earth like the heat and light of the fire.

 

 

19. anaadhimaDhyaantham ananthaveeryam

 

ananthabaahum SaSisoorya nethram

 

paSyaami thvaam dheepathahuthaaSavakthram

 

svathejasaa viSvamidham thapantham

 

I see you as one with no beginning, middle and end, possessing infinite power, with manifold arms and having the Sun and the Moon as your eyes, your mouth a flaming fire and you seem to scorch the whole universe with your effulgence.

 

The words beginning, middle and end are relative to time and hence when Arjuna sees the Lord in His cosmic form where the time and space do not exist there is no beginning, middle or end.

 

The moon and the Sun are the main sources of light. The light denote the act of seeing as well as the objects of sight as both depend on light. Hence all the power behind the eyes of all and the objects of sight in the world are personified as the eyes of the Lord and denoted by the Sun and the Moon.

 

The fire in the mouth of the Lord is the power of speech as well as the fire inside the beings by which one is able to digest the food as the Lord Himself says in a later chapter aham vaiSvaanaro bhoothvaa praaNinaam dheham aaSrithaH (chapter15.14)

 

The Lord is the fire that warms the whole universe so that the life is maintained. This Arjuna experiences as the heat that burns the whole world because he is seeing the whole fire of existence at once.

 

20.dhyaavaaprThioH idham antharamhi

 

vyaaptham thvayaa ekena dhiSaScha sarvaaH

 

dhrshtvaa adhbhutham roopam ugram thavedham

 

lokathryam pravyaThitham mahaathman

 

By you alone the sky , the earth and the space in between and all the directions are pervaded . Seeing this wonderful and frightful form the three worlds are trembling.

 

The magnificence of the vision is so staggering that Arjuna, seeing the Lord all pervading, encompassing the sky and earth in all directions, exclaims that the form is stupendous and fierce so that all the three worlds are cringing with fear.

 

Usually we are afraid of something which we could not understand. We are afraid of death because we do not know the real nature of it. That is why the death is imagined to be something dreadful as Yama with a rope in his hand called paasakkayiru and coming on a buffalo etc.

 

In reality if we understand that the death is nothing but a change of circumstances and of body, only that we would not have a consciousness of our present identity but nevertheless would be conscious of ourselves as an individual, we would welcome death as though we are going to a new place on tour.. Similarly this scene in front of him is baffling to Arjuna and hence he is frightened. He imagines that the whole world is frightened which is simply a superimposition of his feeling on all.