Bhakti Shastri (112) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11 Text 32 to 35

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And what is Krishna’s response? Thereafter, we will discuss in the next class.
Thank you very much. Welcome back to Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course. We are in the 11th chapter.
In the last chapter, we discussed about, in the last class, we discussed about Arjuna’s description of the vision of the universal form. And first he was describing the universal form. Then he described the reactions of the various residents to the perception of the universal form.
Then he described his own emotions. And then after that he described, suddenly the vision comes down to the battlefield. And he sees the various warriors there getting destroyed, devoured.
So, we discussed there about the significance of the destructive aspect of God. God destroys the temporary to make way for the eternal. And then Arjuna concluded with the question, who are you? So, from verse 32 onwards, the Vishwaroopa speaks.
So, actually it is Krishna itself. That is, Sanjaya does not say Vishwaroopavacha. He says Shri Bhagavanvacha.
So, let us see what he says. Shri Bhagavanvacha, Kaalosmi Lokakshaya Krutapravruddho, Lokan Samahartham Iha Pravruddhaha, Ritepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, Yeh Avasthata Pratinikeshv Yodhaha. So, Kaalosmi, time I am.
And what have I come for? Lokakshaya Krutapravruddho. I have come for destroying the world. So, Arjuna had asked two questions.
Who are you? And second was, I do not know what is your purpose. So, in that sense, the question also includes, what is your purpose I want to know? So, in the first line itself, both are described succinctly. Kaalosmi, I am time.
Time I am, the destroyer of all the worlds. And what have I done? I have come here for Lokakshaya Krutapravruddho. Lokakshaya, for destruction of the whole world.
Krutapravruddho, Lokan Samahartham Iha Pravruddhaha. So, all the worlds will be engaged in destruction. All the worlds means, the principal kings of the worlds will be engaged in destruction, mutual destruction.
And then, Ritepitvamna Bhavishyanti Sarve, Yeh Avasthata Pratinikeshv Yodhaha. So, Pratinikeshv Yodhaha is all those warriors who are assembled over here, they will be destroyed. And Ritepitvam, Ritepi, Rite can mean except for you or it can mean without you.
So, except for you means, actually everybody will be destroyed, but you will not be destroyed. So, we know that the Kauravas were defeated and the Pandavas were victorious. And when Karna fell on the 17th day, Shalya became the commander for the 18th day and Shalya was killed by Yudhishthira.
And after that, the few remains of Duryodhana’s soldiers tried to fight and Shakuni was also killed by Sahadev. At that time, Duryodhana fled and then he was hiding under a lake and Bhima found him, challenged him and defeated him. And he was mortally wounded, dying.
So, at that time, the Pandavas thought they had won the war. But that night, Ashwatthama came and brutally slaughtered all the Pandava warriors. However, because of the tradition that the warriors who win the war, in order to sort of proclaim their victory and lay their claim on the land which they have won, the tradition was that they sleep on the battlefield, on the battleground.
So, the Pandavas were sleeping on the battleground and the remaining soldiers were in the camp. Soldiers, warriors, commanders, everyone. So, they were slaughtered by Ashwatthama with Krithavarman and Kripacharya.
And in this way, practically everybody was killed. So, the five Pandavas remained. Even the Pandava sons were killed.
Apart from that, the only persons who remained were these three people, Ashwatthama, Krithavarman and Kripacharya. And from the Pandava side, Krishna was still there. Then Satyaki was a Yadu warrior.
The only Yadu warriors who fought in the war were Satyaki on the side of the Pandavas and Krithavarman on the side of the Kauravas. Krithavarman was the commander of the Narayana Sena and along with the Narayana Sena, he came to fight. Narayana Sena was chosen by Duryodhana before the war took place.
So, he also came. And Satyaki was a very close student of Arjuna, friend and student. He had also been at the Gurukul of Drona and he had learnt some things over there.
But Arjuna had honed his skills through intense training while Arjuna was in Dwaraka. So, they were very close. Satyaki had also fought.
So, Satyaki was there in the same place where the Pandavas were resting for the night. That means, practically only these seven people, the five Pandavas, Satyaki and Krishna on the side of the Kauravas and then Krithavarman, Kripa and Ashwathama on the side of the Kauravas. And of course, there was one more Kaurava who was actually a half-son, a half-brother of the hundred Kauravas.
So, he had been born from Dhritharashtra through a maid servant and he had defected over to the Pandavas just before the war had started and he performed the final rites of all the Kauravas. So, he also survived. So, practically nobody survived.
So, except for you, everybody will be destroyed. Now, that means the Kala Rupa is coming and the Kala Rupa is ferocious for the materialists. But for the devotees, the Kala Rupa is not ferocious.
Just like Narasimhadev was ferocious for the demons, but Narasimhadev was the abode of love for Prahlad and the same Narasimhadev who was roaring like a ferocious and frightening lion started purring and passing like a gentle cat when Prahlad came in front of him, offered obeisance and Narasimhadev touched his hand on Prahlad’s head. So, we see there’s two pictures of Narasimhadev. One is roaring, very fierce and the other is smiling, putting the hand of Prahlad.
So, there’s a famous verse from Sridhar Swami whose Ishtadev was Narasimha. He said, अनुग्र अप्यूग्र एवायम् So, he said, पोतानान स्वकेश्यरी just as a lioness is extremely fierce for everyone except her own cubs. Similarly, the lord in the form of Narasimhadev is fierce for everyone but not for his devotees.
So, same way here also, actually the Ugra, the Virata Rupa doesn’t destroy the Pandavas and रुते पित्वाम् except for you. That’s one way of understanding it. And the रुते पि can mean another explanation is even without you.
रुते can mean without. What does it mean? It means that even if you don’t fight, still I have come here as time and I am going to destroy everyone. So, that means the destruction of the warriors is already ordained by divine arrangement and even if you don’t do it, you think that, oh, I will not fight, I won’t incur sinful reactions, I won’t kill my relatives.
Still, their killing is already ordained and that is going to happen. You cannot stop that. That is the emphasis of रुते पित्वाम्.
So, now, here there is an interesting verse from the Kathopanishad which also illustrates the point of how the Lord’s glory is all-sided. So, यस्यब्रह्मचक्षत्रम् च उभेभवत ओधनः So, now, here it is said that it’s quite a scary verse in one way. यस्यब्रह्मचक्षत्रम् च That means brahmanas and kshatriyas उभेभवत ओधनः So, they are all consumed, devoured like a meal by the supreme.
यस्योपसेचनम् So, that actually, as time, as the form of death, actually consumes everyone. And who can know such a form of the absolute truth? What does it mean? Again, we may have some disturbing notions of cannibalism over here. One thing is non-vegetarianism.
Non-vegetarianism is to eat meat. But cannibalism is to eat human flesh, which is barbaric. It is outlawed according to international law.
And the practise might be there in some remote places. But it is quite a barbaric idea for any civilised person. So, what to speak of any human being doing it? Human being doing itself is horrible.
What to speak of the idea of God doing something like that? So, in fact, a few, an year or so ago, there was a court case in Russia, where the ROC, the Russian Orthodox Church, which wants to have monopoly on religion in Russia, which tried to ban the Hare Krishna, ban the Bhagavad Gita as it is of Shila Prabhupada. And one of the reasons that they gave was this kind of description. They said, these people worship a God who drinks blood and eats people.
So, this is a barbaric cult and we should not allow such a cult to have any presence in our country. So, that was their argument. So, actually, this is such a weak and distorted argument without any philosophical context.
Actually, if you look at any scripture, if somebody wants to distort things out of context, then anywhere and everywhere, that kind of distortion can be there. If we look in the Bible, we will find that, especially in the Old Testament, that whenever the kings conquer any kingdom, what do they do? First thing is that they go and destroy the idols over there in the temple. Their idea is that these are false gods and not only do they destroy the idols, there are descriptions in the Bible where, say for example, God tells that this particular tribe is a contamination in the race and you should not mix this with tribe, otherwise your race will become defiled.
And to ensure that you do not become contaminated, actually, God orders, God orders means one of the messengers of one of the persons who is to be a prophet, a messenger of God, that person comes and says that this whole tribe should be killed. And then these people who are supposed to be messengers of God, who are supposed to be the ambassadors of love, what do they do? They just fall upon this whole tribe and not only the men, the women and the children, all of them are slaughtered and that is called as a cleansing operation. So, this sort of description is there in the Bible.
Similarly, in the Quran also we will see these things. In the Quran also, there is often ruthless killing which happens at several places. So, there are some Jews over there and some groups of Jews surrender.
There is when Muhammad conquers Medina and some groups of Jews fight. So, those who fight, they are defeated and they are killed and those who decide they will not fight, they will surrender. After they surrender and put down their weapons, the Muslims are ordered, you kill all of them.
And those defenceless people who have voluntarily surrendered, then they are brutally slaughtered. So, now there are different interpretations, there are different contextualizations. Some people context whether that it literally means killing, whatever, different people give different meanings for that.
But the point is, if we just go into the literalistic explanation of things, then every scripture in the world can be faulted. And we see that if we look at the Mahabharata war per se, the first and foremost point is, the Mahabharata goes to exhaustive length to describe very clearly how ungodly, how cruel, how vicious the Kauravas were. And it also goes to great length to describe how godly, how conciliatory, how tolerant the Pandavas were.
And the Pandavas tried all possible means to avoid confrontation. Even Krishna himself went to Shantidutta and nothing worked out that often. And only after that, they chose to have the war.
And it was not their choice, it was a necessity for them. And that necessity was not just so that they would themselves become the kings, that necessity was also because the world needed godly administrators. So, it is all combined together which came over there, which resulted in the war.
But this particular description, so first is the war was necessary, so that there could be a righteous administrator, administration, righteous government on the surface of the earth. But beyond that, in the specific context of the war, the Bhagavad Gita is a philosophical discussion. And within that philosophical discussion, this is a revelation that is given.
So, this is a revelation which is not to be taken literalistically. Yes, the point of the Virat Rupa is, Prabhupada also makes the point in his earlier purports, the Virat Rupa is not eternal. Now, our Vishwa Rupa is not eternal.
In the spiritual world, in Vaikuntha, there is no, there is Goloka, there is Ayodhya, but there is no Vishwa Rupa Loka. There is no planet where this particular form exists eternally. And there are the devotees of this particular form worshipping eternally.
No, this is a temporary revelation which is meant to demonstrate the point of God’s Vibhuti, how He pervades everything and exists everywhere. It is that which is demonstrated by this form. And that is the highlight, not anything else.
So, it is a revelation which is given. And within the revelation, through a metaphorical way, what is demonstrated is that ultimately everybody is going to be destroyed. And we should not divorce destruction from the jurisdiction of God.
It is like a king may be very virtuous, but there is prison also. And in the prison, the prisoners often are there for punishment. So, just because the king is virtuous does not mean that there were no prisoners over there.
Similarly, in this material world, destruction is a reality of life. And that reality cannot be denied or rejected, can it be divorced from the overall understanding of God, whose jurisdiction exists over everything in nature. So, it is not that God has a particular Vendetta by which He destroys some people, nor is it that He is cannibalistic.
Simple point is this metaphorical destruction is to indicate how everyone is in the jurisdiction, everything that happens in nature is within the jurisdiction of the absolute truth. So, now when people are destroyed, their destruction is not because of God’s malevolence. Their destruction is because of those people’s own bad karma, because of which they have to face destruction.
So, let us look at the next verse now. So, once Arjuna understands that, okay, this destruction is going to happen, then what? So, therefore, Arjuna, arise. What is the meaning of therefore? Actually, therefore means from the previous verse, it was said that all of them are going to die.
You are not going to die, except for you would mean that you are not going to die. It was implied in the previous verse, and it will be explicitly said in this verse that you are not going to die, others are going to die. That means if there is a war, the other party is going to die, you are not going to die.
That means you will emerge victorious. So, that will be said therefore, and it will further clearly said, tamuttistha, arise, yasholabhasva, attain victory, dasmatamuttistha yasholabhasva, jitvashatrun, conquer over your enemy, jitvashatrun, bhungsvarajam samruddham, bhungsva. Bhungsva is enjoy.
So, normally we say that devotees should not enjoy anything. We are not meant to enjoy. We are meant to serve.
Yes, that is true. But even within service, there is enjoyment. So, it is not that Krishna wants us to be deprived of all enjoyment.
Actually, Krishna wants us to stop depriving ourselves of enjoyment. Real enjoyment is at the spiritual level, in our nature as souls, in our natural activity as parts of Krishna who lovingly serve him. So, as long as we act in material consciousness and seek sense gratification, we deprive ourselves of enjoyment.
So, actually regulation and restriction is not meant to deprive us of enjoyment. It is meant to end our deprivation of enjoyment. So, there is some enjoyment at the material level, that is real enjoyment at the spiritual level.
So, as long as we are caught in seeking enjoyment at the material level, then we cannot relish life at the spiritual level because our consciousness is caught over here. So, when this is regulated, then our consciousness becomes free, it becomes purified, it rises to the spiritual level and we can enjoy the spiritual level in relationship with Krishna. And when we practise devotional life, it is not that we enjoy only at the spiritual level.
Now, there is for a devotee enjoyment within the service of the Lord even in the material world. That is not material enjoyment. Now, a devotee, for example, a devotee builds a big temple for the glorification of the Lord.
That is in one sense in the material world. Geographically, it is at a particular place in a particular country. We could say it is in the material world.
But the devotee gets great happiness over there in doing that. So, bhunkshva. Arjuna, you are going to rule, conquer and rule this kingdom and you enjoy this prosperous kingdom.
So, jitva shatrun, conquer all your enemies, bhunkshvarajam samriddham, and once your enemies are destroyed, your kingdom will become prosperous and you can enjoy that prosperous kingdom. Mayai vaite, by my arrangement, niyataha, destroyed, purvameva, purvameva, in the past only. That means, by my prior arrangement, the enemies are destroyed.
So, nowadays people have this whole scandal about match fixing. That means, people are, players are playing a match, but they have already been paid. Some players are paid to underperform or perform in a particular way so that the match result will go in a particular way.
So, when Krishna is saying like this, by my arrangement, they are already killed. Is this an example of match fixing? The whole Kurukshetra battle is going to take place. It is battle fixing.
Krishna has decided. The Pandavas are going to be victorious. The Kauravas are going to be defeated.
So, is this a matter of battle fixing? The important point is not fixing. The important point here is not of fixing the battle. The important point is fixing of our consciousness.
See, the whole purpose of the Bhagavad Gita is to fix Arjuna’s consciousness in devotion. In this world, whatever God wants to do, He can do without us also. If Krishna wants to build a temple, He can build a temple without any of us.
If Krishna wants to spread His message, He can spread it without any of us. He is present as super soul in the heart of people and one revelation, one inspiration, one conviction which super soul grants can transform people far more thoroughly and permanently than what the biggest lectures that the best preachers can give. So, Krishna doesn’t need us for anything.
So, in that sense, we could say that the results are fixed by Krishna. Krishna can do whatever He wants Himself. But Krishna is not just concerned with results at the material level.
Krishna is concerned with transformations at the spiritual level also. So, at this transformation spiritual level means He is concerned with fixing our consciousness in His devotional service by which we become purified, elevated and liberated. So, the word match fixing is used to result is to talk about sports matches.
In which the result is fixed. But the word match fixing can be used another way that actually there is the concept of marriage matches and matches are fixed also. Okay, this boy should get married to this girl.
So, ultimately, the original and the eternal romance is between the soul and the Lord. So, the match fixing that the Lord is really interested in is our reviving our eternal relationship with Him in enabling us to revive our love for Him and return back to Him. So, whatever external situations are there, the challenges are there, the service opportunities are there, all of them are meant as facilities so that we can fix our consciousness more on Him.
So, mayai vaite nihatapur vameva. So, this is an additional impetus, the knowledge that by Krishna’s arrangement, all the opponents are already killed is not a licence for passivity. Prabhupada says in a lecture, Arjuna did not tell Krishna, Krishna, I know you have killed everyone, already you are God, you can kill everyone and you have killed everyone only.
So, let you kill everyone, I will sit and I will drink bhang. Now, Prabhupada mimics some people, some religious people who do all sorts of activities in the name of religion. And he says, no, Krishna didn’t say that, Arjuna didn’t say that.
Arjuna took up the responsibility. So, the idea is to offer assurance, not to offer a licence. A licence means you can do whatever you want.
No, assurance means you should do this, but if you have some hesitation, whether this will lead to success or not, I am offering you assurance. By my arrangement, success will be there. And therefore, what should you do? Become an instrument.
Now, it’s interesting that sometimes if you say, if you just become an instrument, then it may seem to be demeaning for some people. Why demeaning? You know, I am my own person and I can do my own things. Why should I just become an instrument for somebody else? I will do my own things.
Yes, we can do our own things. But the fact is that our own intelligence is never as good as God’s intelligence. And often whatever we do, it may well end up creating more problems than it solves.
We have discussed this earlier how, what is the best thing that the scientists can do to help heal the ecology of the world? The best thing that they can do is stop doing anything. Why stop doing anything? Because nature has its own capacity to heal and much of what we are doing is wounding nature. We are exploiting natural resources, destabilising the ecological balances, extensive deforestation, so many things we are doing, which is actually ruining the environment.
So, what do we need to do? Stop interfering with nature. Nature will heal itself. So, the point which I am making is not that we have to go back and put and say no to all scientific progress.
That is a cultural issue, which requires a broad discussion. The essential point is whatever culture we are in, we should try to serve Krishna. But the specific point which I am making over here is that all of us are meant to serve Krishna.
And in serving Krishna, we do the best justice to our talents and we bring about the best results. When we act according to our own plans, then our, because our plans and our intelligence is finite, the results that can come from them are also at best mediocre. If you want results that truly do good to everyone, we simply should become instruments for God’s plan.
And when you become instruments for Krishna’s plan, by that our intelligence becomes complemented, completed and perfected by Krishna’s intelligence. So, our intelligence is this much, but Krishna’s intelligence is infinite. And then we can do wonderful things.
So, when Krishna says nimitta matram, he does not minimise Arjuna in that. Immediately he complements it by saying saubhe sachi. Saubhe sachi means you are very skilled for archer to be skilled at shooting.
That itself is extraordinary. Arjuna was so skilled that even at night in darkness, he could shoot arrows accurately and hit targets. So, that was his skill.
And that itself is extraordinary. He was the best archer in the world. But not only was he the best archer, he was ambidextrous.
Ambidextrous means he could shoot equally well with both hands. So, normally the archers will shoot like this, with the right and left hand, but they could shoot with the left and right hand also, both ways. So, that ambidextrousness was an additional virtue.
And through the address saubhe sachi, Krishna is acknowledging Arjuna’s expertise. So, it’s not that when we become devoted to God, our expertise and our abilities are to be of no use. No! Our abilities are to be used and they are acknowledged.
Even in devotee circle, some devotee has singing ability, some devotee has managerial ability, some devotee has speaking ability. So, different devotees can have different abilities and they can be used in Krishna’s service. In fact, they attain their perfection when used in Krishna’s service.
So, nimitta matram bhava saubhe sachi. Become an instrument in this battle. So, through this verse, Krishna is telling Arjuna that this whole world is moving according to a plan.
Prabhupada writes in the Parpot that people think everything is happening by chance. But no! Everything is happening by plan. And our perfection is to understand that plan, cooperate with that plan.
Now you may wonder, how can I know what is God’s plan? Is God going to come and tell me that this is my plan, cooperate with it? Or is it that whatever senior devotees tell me that is my plan, that is my plan. Now somebody says the spiritual master’s instructions are Krishna’s plan. But we may not have access to spiritual master’s instructions also.
So, the important point is that there are broad aspects of Krishna’s plan and when we take care of those broad aspects and the specific aspects take care of themselves. That means that when we take care of, for example, our direct connection with Krishna, we ensure that we study scriptures properly, we do our sadhana properly. And through these, we show Krishna that we want to serve him.
When we express our desire to serve him in such a way, there are other times also Krishna gives us the intelligence of how best we can serve him. So, when it is clear to us how we should serve Krishna, at that time we should clearly serve Krishna. And then when it is not clear how we can serve Krishna, at that time Krishna will also give us guidance of how we can serve him.
So we do, first of all, when things are clear, we show Krishna that I want to serve you by clearly doing those activities. And then that Krishna will reveal to us externally, internally, in his own ways. He will reveal, okay, this is what I want you to do.
So, we shouldn’t go into a paralysis by analysis mode thinking what is Krishna’s plan. We should think, okay, whatever opportunity for service I have, I should take those opportunities. And the more I serve Krishna, Krishna sees my sincere intention, the more Krishna will reveal opportunity for service to me and will guide me to make the best choices for myself.
So, serving Krishna is, especially with respect to sharing Krishna Consciousness with others or even practising Krishna Consciousness with ourselves, may seem like mission impossible. How can I alone? There are so many people who are non-devotees, they’re not interested in devotion also. How will they take up? I alone cannot practise this mission impossible.
But actually speaking, when you understand that this is not my mission, this is I am a part of Krishna’s mission. And Krishna is supreme. The Bible says, when God is for you, who can be against you? So, actually speaking, it is not that God is for us, we should be for God.
So, when we are for God, then actually God is there with us. And then, when we understand that, then sharing Krishna Consciousness is not mission impossible, it is mission unstoppable. Unstoppable.
It’s God’s power and nobody can stop God’s power. It’s going to happen. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission is going to spread all over the world.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has predicted that in every town and village, my holy name will be chanted. So, it’s going to happen. So, Srila Prabhupada took up the responsibility for that and he got the glory.
Many of his other godbrothers, somehow, they didn’t have that, they were, in their own way, exalted souls. They helped Bhaktsana Sri Thakur preach vigorously within India. But they didn’t have that vision, vigour, that level of faith that actually, yes, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission could spread everywhere.
And Srila Prabhupada took that responsibility and he got the glory. He shared Krishna Consciousness all over the world. So, nimitta matram bhavasa uvesachi.
As devotees, we have confidence that when we are serving Krishna, Krishna’s power is with us. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every single plan that a devotee makes will be successful. It’s a mission unstoppable.
Now, even we see Prabhupada’s many plans were not successful when he made the League of Devotees. That was not successful. He had to shut it down and to leave Jhansi.
Similarly, when he tried to help his Godbrother, assist his Godbrother in their missions, that was not a successful attempt and they had to, and he had to leave that place. So, when we say mission unstoppable, that doesn’t mean necessarily that every single activity that devotee does will be successful. It’s like gange bhav ghamo dhanvati.
The Ganga just keeps moving over towards the ocean. Now, that doesn’t mean that whenever any obstacle comes, the Ganga will necessarily break down that obstacle and move forward. Sometimes an obstacle is too strong, the Ganga may not break down.
Ganga may find another way to go ahead. It may go above it. It may go below it.
It may go left. It may go right. It will just keep moving onwards.
So, like that, a devotee keeps finding some way to keep serving Krishna no matter what the difficulty. So, mission unstoppable means the mission itself will go on. Although in specific battles, there may not be always successes, but overall there will be success because it is the Lord’s mission, Lord’s power is there.
So now, why is it that devotees are not always successful? Is it that God’s power is not always with us? No. God is always there with His devotees, but He wants to make sure that we don’t go away from Him in the name of His service. Sometimes success in this world may not be the best thing for us.
That success may infatuate us. That success may make us feel proud and that success may make us think that I am myself glorious and I don’t need God so much. So, the service which you took up for the sake of God may end up taking us away from God.
So, I said sometimes Krishna may not allow us to gain successes and that can happen even in our internal life also. Sometimes we are trying to battle lust, we’re trying to battle greed, we’re trying to battle anger and although we try to take shelter of Krishna, still these temptations overpower us. So, at that time we have to understand that this is not that Krishna’s holy name doesn’t work, not that Krishna consciousness is important, it is just that Krishna wants us to struggle to realise that victory comes not just by our endeavours.
Victory comes by His grace and He wants us to sincerely and seriously beg for His grace and when we do that, so after struggle, struggle, struggle, after that when we succeed, then we will know the success has come but it is not by my effort. By my effort if success had to come, it would have come much much earlier. The fact that it did not come earlier, the fact that it has come now indicate that it has come by Krishna’s grace and because it has come by Krishna’s grace, therefore I am dependent on Krishna.
So, I’m successful now but if I become proud, Krishna withdraws His grace, then again I can fall. So, let me always be dependent on Krishna. So, in this way, sometimes Krishna gives us a failure so that He can give us a greater victory.
So, overall a devotee will never be unsuccessful. Sometimes a devotee may face reversals after reversals in life but through all those reversals, that may be the treatment necessary for the devotee to take greater and greater shelter of Krishna, become free from infatuations with success in this world and by that return to Krishna eventually. So, Jatayu, we see that he failed at the material level.
He tried to stop Ravana and he couldn’t stop Ravana. Now, of course, there is multiple explanations. Now, Ravana, he believed.
Although he was lusty, he was wretched, he was demoniac but still he had some beliefs in Vedic culture also. So, before he abducted Sita, he consulted an astrologer. He says, will this abduction be successful? So, the astrologer, now actually a good astrologer would tell him, never do abduction.
It’s an irresistible thing. But you know, astrologers, not all astrologers are always pure hearted. They are also money minded.
So, he said, actually this particular time is a time, if you can abduct her in this time, then the abduction will be successful. Otherwise, it will be a failure. It will cause your destruction.
So, he planned it in such a way that Maricha would go and he would distract Lord Ram and eventually Lakshman would also go away and then he would abduct Sita. So, he had planned in such a way that the whole abduction could be completed in that Vinda period. But Jatayu is coming and stopping him.
Jatayu fought with him for a long time, not in terms of days and months, but for hours. And because of that, what happened was that the period expired. And in that sense, whatever auspiciousness might have been there around this inauspicious activity of abducting someone else’s wife, that was also lost.
Now, of course, we can say that the Lord is omnipotent and the Lord can get back his consort no matter what time somebody abducts him. That’s true. But within the perspective of the Leela, Jatayu did succeed in terms of delaying the abduction of Sita.
But from the overall perspective, we may say that, okay, Jatayu had to die. So, how was he successful? So, actually, he may have lost the battle against Ravana, but he won the war against Maya. How did he win the war against Maya? In this world, actually, the same instruction is given by Vyasadeva to Yudhishthira Maharaj when Yudhishthira Maharaj is utterly disconsolate and devastated after the death of Abhimanyu.
Yudhishthira Maharaj feels as if he is responsible because he requested Abhimanyu to break the Chakravyuha and he assured that all of us, Pandavas, will come behind you to assist you. We will protect you. So, Abhimanyu went fearlessly and broke the Chakravyuha.
But as the remaining Pandavas, Bhima, Yudhishthira, Nakula Sahadeva, they were all trying to go inside, Jayadrath came in between and he blocked all of them. And that’s how Abhimanyu was left alone. And then Abhimanyu was eventually fought heroically, but he was slaughtered by six Kaurava maharathas.
So, Yudhishthira felt himself responsible to protect himself from Chakravyuha of Dronacharya. I send this 16-year-old boy to the slaughterhouse. How wretched I am! So, at that time Vyasadeva came and consoled him and Vyasadeva told him that actually, you know, for a Kshatriya, it’s a perfection to die on the battlefield.
And actually to die in a dharma yuddha, in the mission of the Lord, it’s not just a dharmic perfection, it is a devotional perfection also. So, he has attained an abode from which is actually the envy of even the gods. And in this world, no matter how high a person rises, that person can always be pulled down by temptation.
But Abhimanyu has now attained an abode from where he will never be pulled down by temptation. So, rather than lamenting for him who has attained such an exalted destination, we should lament for all of us who still have to live in this world of temptation and tribulation. So, the point which Vyasadeva is making is that Abhimanyu, he may have died, he may have lost the war against the Kauravas, but he won the war against temptation.
He went to the arena beyond temptation. He went to the spiritual world. So, like that, Jatayu, he may have lost the battle against Ravana, but he won the war against Maya.
He won the war against illusion, against temptation. You know, a Ghridhra adhipai is a vulture. A vulture is not considered to be a very auspicious animal.
Among birds also, vultures are considered to be among the lower tamasic animals. So, as a vulture, so many vultures have taken birth, so many vultures have died and that has gone on throughout history and will keep going on throughout history. But here is a vulture who served the Lord and laid down his life in the service of the Lord and died in the lap of the Lord, chanting the name of the Lord and had the Lord himself perform his anti-samskara.
And the Lord offered water to him just like he offered water. So, water for his father. So, that is actually the greatest fortune and how many people get that kind of fortune.
So, therefore, this supreme fortune that Jatayu got, by all this, it is understood that he went back to the spiritual world. So, he may have lost one war against Ravana, but he may have lost one battle. The battle is like one segment, one unit of events and war is the broader course of the confrontation.
So, like we have World War II. Within that, there can be the Battle of Normandy, there can be the Battle of Paris or whatever battles are there. So, battles are subsets.
War is the mega set, super set. So, Jatayu may have lost the battle against Ravana, but he won the war against Maya and he went back to the spiritual world. So, sometimes, even in our battles as devotees, in our lives as devotees, we may lose some battles.
But even if we lose the battles, we may lose the fight, but we shouldn’t lose the fighting spirit. Why? Because the fights will come and go. But the fighting spirit is what is going to keep us going in our spiritual life.
And our fighting spirit is based not just on specifically whether we win particular battles or not, it is based on the fact that Krishna is there with us and we are serving Krishna. And the opportunity to serve Krishna is always there no matter what happens. So, in that way, we can keep marching ahead, marching ahead, marching ahead steadily and we can ultimately attain Krishna.
So, that is the ultimate goal and perfection of a devotee’s life. That keep serving Krishna irrespective of whether there’s victory or defeat at this level, still a devotee goes on. And of course, by the arrangement of Lord, the devotee can get extraordinary victories far greater than what would otherwise have been possible.
See, in this world, the maximum that a person can rise up to is what is ordained by the karma of the person. A person can work very very hard, but if the karmic credits are not there, the person cannot rise as high as that person, as other people. Prabhupada says that many people work hard, but not everyone becomes a millionaire or a billionaire or a trillionaire.
Why is that? Yes, we could say that this person was so shrewd, so intelligent, made the right decisions. So true, the person made the right decisions, but there are also so many circumstances, which are also important for the success. If those circumstances were not there, the right decisions wouldn’t have taken place and the right decisions wouldn’t have had such a dramatically positive effect.
They had a positive effect because circumstances are also important. And those circumstances are arranged by karma. So, we understand that in this world, the maximum that a person can succeed is dependent on whatever the karmic credits are.
But for a devotee, the success is not limited by karmic credits. The devotee’s success can go far far beyond the karmic credits to as much as Krishna wants to empower the devotee. And how much does Krishna want to empower the devotee? Actually, Krishna wants to empower the devotee unlimitedly.
Prabhupada told the devotees that if you just accept, you just firmly believe that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then Krishna can give you the world in just 18 days. Just as Krishna gave the world to Arjuna in 18 days, Krishna can give the world to all of you in 18 days. Just have to strengthen your faith in Krishna’s supremacy, in Krishna’s glory, in Krishna’s potency.
So, as devotees, even if we have some failures, we may lose the fight, but we don’t have to lose the fighting spirit. Maintain the fighting spirit, ultimate victory is guaranteed for a devotee. Let’s go to the next verse here.
So, Prabhupada explains that if one is in full Krishna consciousness and his life is devoted to the Lord’s transcendental service, he is perfect. So, he should just fight in accordance with the desire of the Supreme Lord, then he would be happy. So, irrespective of success or failure, he would be perfect.
And he would be successful by the arrangement of the Lord. So, actually Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, these are enemies. And he says, karanam tatha jnanapiyo dhaviran, all the other enemies, mayahatamstvam, by my arrangement, they are killed, jahima vetishtha, vetishtha is disturbed, disturbance, fear, apprehension, give it up, destroy your apprehension, yudhyasva jetasi, yudhyasva, just fight, jetasi, jai, jetasi, you will conquer, rane, sapatman, in the fight, your enemies.
So, now, when Arjuna has described the Vishwaroopa Darshan, at that time, he has mentioned Bhishma, Drona and Sutaputra. Dhatarashtra’s seputra and Bhishmadhutra and Sutaputra is mentioned. But he has not mentioned Jayadratha over here.
And in fact, if we just look at the relative powers of the Kaurava warriors and Pandava warriors, Jayadratha was not a very prominent hero. In fact, when Duryodhana enlists the warriors on both sides, actually, Duryodhana doesn’t even bother to mention Jayadratha. He was Sindhu mahesh.
So, neither Jayadratha is mentioned nor Sindhu mahesh is mentioned. So, Jayadratha is not a very formidable warrior. But still, why does Krishna mention here Jayadratha’s name? Because he knows that later on, Jayadratha is going to play a very critical role.
Jayadratha is going to cause the death of Abhimanyu and then Arjuna is going to take the vow that I’ll kill Jayadratha or I’ll enter into fire. And killing Jayadratha is going to be nearly impossible. Because Drona will practically arrange the whole army to protect Jayadratha.
So, actually, that Herculean, nearly impossible task, also Arjuna will be able to accomplish by the will of the Lord. And that is what he is assuring. So, Jayadratha will be killed.
So, mayahatam, they’ll all be killed. So, Prabhupada writes, the plans of the devotees are as good as his plans, Lord’s plans. One should follow such plans and be victorious in the struggle for existence.
So, we may not have to fight a battle like the warriors of Kurukshetra are fighting, but we have our own battles. So, we’ll be successful in that. So, now Sanjay is speaking.
So, the screen is moving backwards. Camera is moving backwards. After hearing this, he heard the words of Keshava.
Then he folded his hands. Vipamanaha. Vipamanaha is trembling.
Now, actually, although the Viratrupa, all the Vishwarupas spoke such encouraging, action-calling words, but still the Vishwarupa was quite fearsome to see. And still Arjuna, he is overwhelmed that this formidable, fearsome, unparalleled form is actually bestowing blessings on me. It’s calling me to do something.
So, it’s thrilling, but at the same time, the form is fearsome. So, there is Vipamanaha. There is trembling still.
Vipamanaha Kiriti. So, Kiriti. He is the crown wearer.
Prabhupada translates Kiriti as helmet or crown, whatever. It can refer to crown also. So, what is helmet basically is what is worn on the head.
So, it acts as protection. It has protective purpose and also the ornamental purpose. So, Kiriti.
So, the point is, why Vipamanaha Kiriti? Actually speaking, normally Kshatriyas don’t tremble over anything. Kshatriyas are trained to see blood, violence. Kshatriyas are trained to face death in the eye without flinching or fearing or fleeing, of course.
Yudhepi chaapalayanam. It’s described in the 18th chapter. When we look at the qualities of Kshatriyas, we will say that one of the qualities is they never run away from the battlefield.
So, they have that training by which they don’t become fearful even in the most scary and ghastly of situations. But this darsha of the Vishwaroopa, especially the Kala aspect of it, is so fearsome that even that person who is Kiriti, that person who is a crown wearer, Kiriti can be a generic reference to any Kshatriya who wears the crown, but specifically it is one of the names of Arjuna also. That Arjuna who is the greatest of Kshatriyas, even he is Vipamanaha.
So, what cannot be done by anything in this world can be done by the Lord. Lord Shiva is so such a dheera that nobody can bewilder him. It is described that once Bharata Devi herself came and tried to agitate him by even touching his private parts, but Lord Shiva did not get agitated and Prabhupada said, this is an example of how a person should be dheera.
But then Mohini Murthy came at that time. Just by seeing Mohini Murthy, what happened to Lord Shiva? He became wildly passionate and even when Parvati was right next to him, he forgot Parvati and ran away and ran away, not only to office Mohini Murthy, away from Parvati, even his own worshippers were chanting Om Namah Shiva, they were there and he ran after Mohini Murthy even in their presence. So, how does this happen? When the Lord wants, the Lord can overwhelm anyone and everyone.
So, the most dheera person can become completely a dheera. The most fearless person can become fearful. That is the nature of the Lord.
Vipamanah kireti, that is the omnipotence of the Lord. And then what happened? Namaskritva. He offered obeisances.
Bhuyaevah krishnam. Namaskritva bhuyah. Earlier also he had offered obeisances.
And first time he saw the Virata Rupa. So, now he is offering obeisances. Bhuyaevah krishnam sagat gadam gadgada.
His throat is in chokran ecstasy. Bheeta bheeta pranamya. So, bheeta bheeta.
Bheeta bheeta means he is still fearful. What kind of awesome form is this? Pranamya. So, he offered obeisances.
So, one is holding hands, krutanjali. Namaskritva is offering obeisances. Pranamya is bowing down.
So, it is all that. And now he starts speaking his prayer. So, earlier it was a description.
Now it is a prayer. So, these prayers also go through different phases. And we will look at those phases.
But before that, let us try to understand what is this Kaala Rupa. In the second canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a description of the universal form. And that is described quite elaborately.
Now, the word universal form can refer to many things. The basic concept is that we connect the universe with God. And whatever manifestations we see within the universe, we see them as manifestations of the Lord’s form.
And by that, we spiritualise our vision of the universe and we understand the glory of God. So, the meditation on the Virat Rupa is called the first step in God realisation in the Bhagavatam, that chapter is entitled. Why first step? Because initially people have material consciousness.
And generally in material consciousness, things which are materially big are respected by people. If there is a group of lions, then the biggest lion having the greatest strength, the greatest ferocity, that lion will be respected as a king generally speaking. So, that way in material consciousness, things which are materially big attract attention and respect.
So, that way it is told for such people that when they are in material consciousness, conceive how big the Lord is by contemplating on how the mountains are the bones of the Lord. Contemplate on how sun and the moon are the eyes of the Lord. Contemplate on how the rivers are like the water in the navel of the Lord.
And the trees are like the hair on the body of the Lord. Now, Srila Prabhupada clearly explains in the Bhagavatam that this is a conceptualisation. Conceptualisation means, it’s not that the Lord has a specific form like this.
It’s not that the Lord has some specific form where somewhere He is like this. So, it is said that the higher planets are His head, the lower planets are His legs. So now, we know the universe is there, 14 planetary systems.
But it is not that separate from the universe, there is another form of the Lord which extends from the top of the universe to the bottom of the universe. This is a conceptualisation. The Bhagavatam uses the word Kalpita and the word Kalpita is related with the Kalpana.
Kalpana means imagination. And Prabhupada writes that in this way, the Lord is imagined. The Lord’s form is imagined by great thinkers.
Now, you may wonder if they are great thinkers, why do they need to imagine anything? Actually, the idea of imagination is not always bad. If that imagination, that conceptualisation can connect us with God, then that is desirable. So, the idea is that these people by conceptualising about God in this way can become God conscious, at least at the preliminary level.
So, later on, of course, it is said that these yogis, these seekers should meditate on the Supersoul in the heart and the Bhagavatam evolves its description further and eventually it talks about Bhagawan. And then it comes to the end canto, Bhagawan Sri Krishna. So, Bhagavatam’s revelation is also progressive.
But in the first canto, it gives a Virat Rupa description and then it goes on to describe the Paramatma in the heart and eventually describes the sub-transcendental person Bhagawan who descends in various incarnations. Now, within this particular flow, the Virat Rupa that is described in the Bhagavatam is a conceptual tool for linking our materially absorbed consciousness through the medium of matter to the absolute truth. But the Bhagavad Gita’s Vishwa Rupa is slightly different.
It is not a conceptualisation. In the Bhagavatam, it is described that yogis should sit in a meditational pose and then try to close their eyes, go into a trance and conceive of the form like this. Arjuna does not do like this over here.
So, although the terms sometimes may be interchangeable, the exact nature of what is happening is slightly different. So, here in Arjuna’s case, what he sees is not a conceptualisation. It is a revelation.
So, what is the difference between conceptualisation and revelation? Conceptualisation is what we have conceived by our own imagination, by our own creative skills, no doubt based on scripture. Scripture gives some guidance about how we should envision the Lord. It is not that we can envision arbitrarily as per our wild imagination.
But we conceive based on scriptural direction. So, there is conceptualisation. Whereas, in the case of revelation, it is not that Arjuna is trying to see something with the mind’s imagination.
Everything is just flashed right in front of him. So, it is a revelation. And in this revelation, what happens is Arjuna is able to see the whole universe.
So, that means God can display His revelation whenever He wants. So, here when Arjuna is seeing the Vishwaroopa, it is not a sadhana that he is doing. It is a kripa that he is getting.
When in the Bhagavatam, it is described about Viratrupa, that is a sadhana which the beginners in the transcendental path have to do to internalise the understanding of how God is so mind-bogglingly massive, so great. So, to understand that, that Viratrupa is a conceptualisation from the Bhagavatam. Vishwaroopa is a revelation.
So, we could say revelation is top-down, conceptualisation is bottom-up. And generally speaking, in the Viratrupa, when the conceptualisation happens, that time the Kalarupa is not shown. So, the Kalarupa is specially shown to Arjuna by the Lord because the Lord wants to not only answer Arjuna’s request that please display the universal form, please display in a vision what you have told me in the description earlier, but the Lord also wants to reassure Arjuna that the battle that you are going to fight, in that you will surely be successful.
Do not hesitate. So, Krishna has displayed the Viratrupa several times earlier. He has displayed some version to mother Yashoda, when mother Yashoda asked Krishna who was supposed to have eaten mud to open his mouth and she saw the whole universe.
That is one kind of Vishwaroopa. Then another he showed to Duryodhana in the war when he had gone as Shanti Duta and Duryodhana tried to arrest Krishna. There also it was scary and he saw practically all the beings in the universe within the Viratrupa.
But there also he did not see the Kalarupa. Duryodhana did not see the destruction of Duryodhana. Duryodhana did not see Duryodhana and all his brothers going inside the mouth of the universal form.
That is a special vision which is given only over here. So, that is why the word is used Adrushta Purvaam. This has never been shown before.
So, this Kalarupa is what is fearsome. The universal form is also extraordinary. It creates astonishment.
And mother Yashoda was also astonished. But mother Yashoda did not see any blood or anything like that. And Duryodhana did not see any blood or anybody getting consumed and devoured like that.
That consuming and devouring aspect is what happens with the Kalarupa. And that is what Arjuna is enquiring about. Arjuna himself asked, please show me Rupaishwarya.
And when he first saw the Rupaishwarya, he also identified, Pashyami Vishveshwara Vishwarupa. So, I offer obeisances to you who are Vishwarupa. So, if he has already identified this is Vishwarupa, he has already identified this is actually Vishnu himself which is as in 24 and 30th verses.
He says he is Vishwarupa in 16th verse. Then why does in 31st verse he asks, Akhyahimeko Bhavanukarupa. Who are you? If he knows it is Vishnu, if he knows he is Vishwarupa, why is he asking? Because the Kalarupa has never been seen.
And that is why this particular feature within the Vishwarupa, who is this who is devouring everyone? That is what he asked and he described as Kalarupa. So, now after understanding that this Kalarupa is there, within the Vishwarupa is there, and then Arjuna will offer prayers. And we will discuss these prayers in our next class.