​Gita 10.16 – Desire for details of a subject demonstrates deep devotion to that subject

Bhagavad Gita 10.16 Bhagavad Gita 10.16 so here he speaks I ask you to say oh lord Please, if it's you, please speak, O Lord.

Divya ya atma-vibhutaya, divine atma-vibhutaya, your own opulences. Vakyabhir vibhutibhir lokaan, those vibhutis, those opulences, that greatness. Imamstvam vyapyatishtasi, by which, vyapyatishtasi, you pervade this world, by which you are situated in this world, in your pervasive manifestation.

Bhakto mahasya asheshi, O Lord, please speak it in detail. Now, if we see Arjuna's response here, it's illuminating. What is Arjuna doing exactly? He is, in the three verses, he has talked about how in 12, 13, 14, and even 15, in four verses actually, Krishna spoke Satyushloki, and then in four verses in his response, Arjuna has affirmed Krishna's supreme position.

And now he says, please, O Lord, speak about your glories. So, in one sense, we see how the Satyushloki is accepted and applied by Arjuna. So, in one verse, Krishna told that he is the Supreme Lord, the Absolute Truth, Aham sarvasya prabhavo, and thereafter, he described how his devotees discuss his glories.

In 10.9, he states, So, this is machitta, madgata, prana, my dear Lord, that Krishna has told that the devotees, they delight in discussing about his glories, madgata, prana, bodhayanta, parasvaram, they think about him, they devote their lives to him, and they delight in discussing about him and enlightening each other about him. This is their joy, they get satisfaction and jubilation in it. So, now, Arjuna wants to implement that immediately, and Arjuna says, Krishna, please speak your glories.

So, vaktumarhasi, O dear Lord, please speak your glories. How should you speak it? Asheshe, in detail, don't leave anything behind, speak exhaustively. Nowadays, we have the opposite, everything is in brief.

Even if you have to study books of any subject, there are brief notes, brief summaries of chapter summaries, or there may be LMRs, last minute revisions, where instead of studying the whole book, just study the formulas, study some basics, or to speak of serious subjects, such as academic subjects, which people want to study in brief, even news that is to be read, there's news in briefs, where people don't even want to read news too much. So, we want everything in short. And that's understandable, because we can say that we have busy lives.

At the same time, we see that whereas people want things in short, it is not that they don't want things in detail. For example, if there's some novel, say there is a Harry Potter series. So, now the novel goes to sometimes 600, 700 pages, and not a single picture in the whole book, and still, children are glued to it, reading it for reading it several times.

And then not only that, there's so much memorabilia, which comes up with some people extend their stories and do so many things. So, people want to enter into an alternate universe with their characters. Sometimes, one character is depicted in a particular way by the author and then others, they write on that same author, they write on that same character in various different ways.

And in that way, the whole narrative becomes huge. So, there can be a whole literature about the literature, there is literature about a particular imaginary character and the literature about that literature also. So, for example, Shakespeare's novels, his plays are there, but then there are so many books written on Shakespeare's plays.

And in that way, things keep expanding. And sometimes if a character is popular, then people want to read more and more about it. Sometimes, some fiction authors, they just create a place, they may create, say, a small town, and then they describe life in that small town.

So, they describe the life of one family there, then another family, the third family, or maybe they have one family with the different brothers and how each brother, what how that person goes through life, how that person maybe finds love or whatever. So, basically, people love to read series, and sometimes series go on for books and books and books. So, there, and people at the end of it, often when the fiction novel, when they are going to end, they say, no, no, no, they should not end.

If only there, will there be a sequel, will there be a sequel? People wonder. So, what has happened is, there people want a she-she, you know. So, although we are in a culture where people want things briefly, if people love some things, then they wanted a she-she, they wanted to go on and on.

Suppose there is a tennis match going on, and suppose it's like one player is winning in three sets straight, and then the other player starts fighting back, then even if that other player is not all that popular, sometimes spectators start cheering that other player, because they want the match to go on. And then they want to cheer the player, and maybe the next player fight back, and the match goes into a fourth set. And if it goes into a fourth set, then they want this player who is down to win the fourth set also so that the match will go into fifth set.

So, basically, when we like something, at that time, we do not want it in short, we want it in detail, and we want it to go on and on and on. So, here we see that Arjuna when he is requesting a she-she, my dear lord, please describe in detail. So, his request to describe in detail is itself a sign of his great interest in the subject and his great attraction or devotion to the object of the subject.

The object of the subject means the subject is, we could say philosophy or theology, and the object of the subject is the Bhagavad Gita is describing Krishna ultimately. So, and the request for a she-she is even more significant, because it is made in the battlefield, where Arjuna is on the verge of fighting a war, the conches have already been blown, and everybody else is waiting for the match for the fight to begin. It is like suppose there is a World Cup final, and the batsman is about to come out to bat when the toss has been played, the toss has been done, the run team has chosen to bat and the team is about to come into battle at that time, the batsman starts having a conversation with the coach.

Now that the whole fielding team is waiting, the spectators are waiting, the commentators are waiting. Now even if the batsman wants to talk with the coach for some time, maybe the batsman is feeling nervous or whatever, the batsman won't keep that talk for very long. They want to finish the talk so that because they understand everyone is waiting and the batsman wants to go out and bat.

So, Arjuna's declaration here, Krishna, please speak a she-she, that indicates how much attraction, how much devotion he has for Krishna. When we love something, one characteristic of love is that the object of love that absorbs us so much that we forget everything else. Suppose we are with someone whom we love, then the time just flies away.

We think that okay, maybe half an hour has passed and we find that three hours have passed while talking with that person. How does that happen? Because there is affection, there is love. And that's why we feel, oh, let this meeting go on and on and on.

So, that's what he's requesting over here. Oh, Krishna, please speak in detail. Please speak a she-she.

And we didn't discuss one point here, the point of Vibhuti. What is it? Krishna's glories. But Krishna's glories are manifested in this world.

He wants to speak, Krishna wants to speak. That point, of course, will be more specifically mentioned in the next talk where he asks, please, oh, Lord, describe how you manifest in this world.