The Importance of the Bhagavadgita-6 : Swami Krishnananda

13/07/2019
(Gita Jayanti Message spoken on December 26, 1982.)
Post-6.

This grew into a mighty magnificence of universal expanse which is the supreme shaktipada, as we may say in modern style – God entering man and possessing him, flooding him, overpowering him, destroying his existence itself, frightening him to his core, and compelling this frightened poor spirit to exclaim the very same prayers which were put into the mouth of Arjuna in the Eleventh Chapter:

“Mighty being, I cannot tolerate the vision that you put before me.”

Perhaps it is the salt doll that, before stepping into the ocean in which it is going to melt, gets frightened at the very sight of it and exclaims, “Enough of this!” When our feet go one inch deep into the waters of the ocean, we get frightened at the waves dashing upon us and we draw ourselves back.

We cannot even see the ocean without a sense of shocking fright which passes through the very veins of our body because it is a terror, and we know its powers. Jnatum, drastum, pravestum are the words used towards the end of the Eleventh Chapter in connection with the manner in which the soul tunes itself with God existence.

It has to be understood, and the understanding was communicated in a mighty manner throughout the chapters leading up to the Ninth or Tenth, we may say.

Then comes drastum : It has to be seen. And it was seen by Arjuna. He understood what it could be when, in the Tenth Chapter, he was told what God could be and what He is. “Oh, it is like this. I understand. Jnana has come. Now darshan is necessary.”

"manyase yadi tach chhakyam maya draṣhṭum iti prabho
yogesvara tato me tvam darshayatmanam avyayam." - Gita . Ch-11. Slo-4.

“O Lord, if you feel I am fit for this vision, deign, condescend to grant it to me.”

The vision was granted. “The whole sky was lit up with light, and thousands of suns arose, as it were,” said the poet. What else can be said? Thousands of suns are nobodies before this light, but we have to say something. What else can we say?

We are like frogs in a well and the ocean is so big, but whatever we say, it cannot be equal to the actual ocean. So we may say it is like thousands of suns or millions of suns, but that cannot be an adequate description of God’s glory. We have not seen any light greater than the sun’s light, so we can only multiply the sun’s light arithmetically and imagine that God must have been like that. However, God is more than all He has created, even greater than the sun’s light itself. Well, the vision was granted, but we do not know whether Arjuna actually entered it. Pravesha perhaps was not done. He visualised it, and there the matter ended.

Arjuna said, “Come down. I shall be pleased to see you once again as my comrade, my jolly friend Sri Krishna, not as this mighty terror before me.” It appears that Arjuna did not enter it, because he was still the same Arjuna after the Gita was spoken. He was not a different person. At least we have to believe this, as it is told in the Mahabharata itself. It was a sudden injection of a power that was required at that moment, and perhaps when the work was over the power was withdrawn. It was not essential for Arjuna to be always in that condition. It was not necessary, and it would also not have been proper.

To be continued ...