The Language of the Bhagavadgita: 4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday 15, January 2025, 10:00.
Article
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
The Language of the Bhagavadgita: 4. 
Swami Krishnananda.
(Gita Jayanti Message spoken on December 26, 1982)

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Many divine features seem to commingle in increasing the sanctity of this divine gospel, the Bhagavadgita: the great Lord speaking in whatever way he might have spoken, a great Lord, Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, dictating, and a great Lord, Bhagavan Ganapati Ganesha, writing it down.

This is like Ganga who touched the three great divine beings, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva. She flowed from the kamandal of Brahma, fell on the feet of Narayana, and then descended on the head of Siva. Just as we have the sacred Ganga who touched all the three great divine beings, likewise, the Bhagavadgita is a Ganga flowing before us as divine grace. We can call it only divine grace: love of God for man. God loves man. Sri Krishna loved Arjuna, and the Absolute loves its own creation. Grace flows immensely, like the flow of milk from the udder of a cow or the flow of honey, as all love is. And here is the Bhagavadgita before us: a concrete, substantial manifestation in language, the language of Bhagavan Vyasa himself, who was not less than Bhagavan Sri Krishna in any way.

Thus, the Bhagavadgita, in the language it is written today, is not merely an instrument of communicating divine knowledge to us, but it is divine grace descending upon us. It is holy, supremely sanctified. The vibrations that the Bhagavadgita recitations set up are said to be in tune with, en rapport with, the vibrations which emanated from the mind of Vyasa himself, or perhaps the vibrations of the Supreme Being, the Viratsvarupa, God Himself, when he dictated this great gospel to Lord Ganesha. Sarva sastra mayi gita: All the sciences of human life are explained in some way or the other, in some verse, in some place or some context or the other of the Bhagavadgita. All the Shastras are there; you need not read any other book. This one book is sufficient to unravel the mystery of the human predicament.

You would have yourself observed that when you glance through any page, any verse, any word of the Bhagavadgita text, you would have received some inspiration when your spirits are drooping. When you are agony-ridden and distressed, and you see no meaning in things due to your sorrow, at that time when you open the Bhagavadgita you would have seen something scintillating, piercing, and projecting itself as a solution of your problem in a motherly, kindly affection. This is what I found, and everybody would have found it.

The Bhagavadgita is principally God speaking to man, and when God speaks, you know what He will speak. Everything is spoken when God speaks because God is all things, the supreme be-all and end-all. Arjuna’s multi-formed vision as recorded in the Eleventh Chapter cannot be called Sri Krishna, the son of Devaki, Vasudeva, a Yadava prince, a friend of Arjuna. You can imagine what sort of thing it could have been that this poor Arjuna visualised. Vrsninam vasudevosmi (B.G. 10.37): I am Vasudeva among the Vrishnis. Who speaks this? Vasudeva himself will not say that. There is somebody else speaking behind the screen and saying, “I am Krishna among the Yadavs, as I am many things among many other things.”

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 presented 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 darshanam is necessary.

” Manyase yadi tac chakyam maya drastum iti prabho, yogesvara tato me tvam darsayatmanam avyayam (B.G. 11.4): 

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

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Continued

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