​Gita 10.19 – Our eagerness to hear Krishna’s glories is auspicious for us and delightful for Krishna

As we become absorbed in love for Krishna. Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 10.19 Krishna is speaking in response to Arjuna's question about what is happening, about how Arjuna can see Krishna within the world of matter.

And he responds by saying, I am delighted. Yes, indeed, I will do. I will speak.

My divine opulences. I will speak only the prominent among them because actually, there is no end to my opulences. It is at one level, this might seem like a lot of ego.

Krishna is speaking as if, no, there is no end to his opulences. How do we understand his statement? The point is that Krishna is always merciful. Krishna is always helpful for the conditioned soul and he offers his help in whatever way is best for that soul.

So here, when the soul is trapped in material existence, at that time, it is important for us to recognize that we at our core are spiritual beings. And we can find lasting satisfaction only in love for Krishna. And that love, we all need to strive to acquire.

And the best way to acquire that love is through the gradual process of purification. Purification essentially involves turning our heart towards Krishna and becoming attracted to him. Quite often, we are attracted to things which are attractive in this world.

It might seem like a tautology, tautology is unnecessary or redundant statement. But it conveys the important truth that that if you are attracted to that which is attractive, then to be attracted to Krishna means that we should be able to perceive Krishna as attractive. Now, Krishna is by nature, by definition, attractive.

But we may not perceive his attractiveness as long as we are at the material level of reality, as long as we are perceiving things separate from him. So we see things in this world as attractive. But we don't see the connection of those things with the Supreme Lord, who is the source of all attractiveness.

And thus we end up saying attracted to the things but not staying at becoming attracted to the source of those things, or the source of that, not just the source of those things, but the source of the attractiveness of those things. And to correct this lacuna, Krishna is now giving knowledge. And though it may appear as if he is proud, but the point is that it is not so much a matter of pride as a matter of fact and education about fact.

Krishna is simply informing Arjuna about the nature of reality and his, that connection, the universal principle he written in 10.41, that he is hinting at right now. And he says that, Krishna you are asking me to speak about my opulences and Krishna you are asking me to speak in detail. But I cannot speak in detail because I will speak only the, in summary, I will speak only the principle, pradhanyatah kurusreshtam.

Why? Because na asti anto istarase me. Because there is no end to these glories. They are, they are unending.

Na asti anto. So, just like, if a person comes and goes and asks a wealthy person, please tell me about the extent of your wealth. And the wealthy person may say, okay, I can try to do that.

But actually, my wealth is unlimited. And I will only tell you about some of my holdings. I cannot tell you about all my holdings because that would be impossible to inform you about all of them.

So, the statement is not a arrogance. It is simply a matter of fact. And to the extent we recognize that fact, and to the extent we harmonize with that fact, to that extent, we can be progressing in life, moving on towards Krishna with determination, with calmness, with clarity, with focus.

And it is such determination that Krishna urges us to have when he asks us to, or rather when he, when Krishna is guiding us towards this kind of determination, when he is stating that, you should, that I am going to speak my glories briefly. I cannot speak them endlessly. Actually, there is no end to my glories.

Na asti anto, na asti anto, na asti anto. So, here Krishna will speak a list of his glories in the subsequent verses from the text 20 to text 39. And there is humility and there is honesty.

And then there is also purpose. There is, you know, somebody might honestly speak that I am the wealthiest person in the country. Now, if there is no need, there is no context for speaking that and if a person speaks about that, that is likely to be inappropriate.

But if the context is about wealth, and at that time someone speaks about the wealth, that is not only not inappropriate, that is actually necessary. If somebody is searching for the wealthiest person in the town, and they come to the person who is the wealthiest, and that person does not, because of a false notion of humility, tell that I am the wealthiest person. The result of that will simply be that the person will be lost in the search, the person will not be able to find out how actually they are the wealthiest.

So, to be able to explain things properly, it is important that to be able to offer proper education, to be able to offer proper knowledge, it is important that one know, one tell the facts, and it is in that mood of education that Krishna is speaking over here. And when we see it in that light, then we will be able to understand that what Krishna is speaking is not at all objectionable. Actually, it is very important, very purposeful.

The purpose of Krishna speaking simply to enable people to move onwards in gaining a proper understanding of things. If a doctor is, say a patient is sick, and the patient is looking for a doctor, and the doctor does not know where to, the patient does not know where to go for the best doctor, and the patient has somehow come to the best doctor. At that time, the doctor says that, doctor does not say that, oh, I am the best doctor.

Other doctors have been trained by me only. If the patient's doctor says that with the intent of helping the patient to be cured of the deceased, then that is not at all a matter of pride, that is a matter of education for the purpose of benefiting the patient. So, what we should not simplistically think of certain expressions as expressions of pride, and certain expressions as expressions of humility.

We have to see that certain sometimes certain expressions may seem proud, but if they are done with the benevolent purpose of helping others, then they are not actually proud, they are expressions of, they are expressions where ultimately humility is not just I am fallen, I am good for nothing, I am useless. The essence of humility is that is a disposition to serve, disposition to benefit the other person. And if benefiting them requires speaking, something which might seem to be like bragging, that is also, that can also be done and a wise person will understand that it's actually not bragging.

Thank you. That is what Krishna is doing over here. I tell Arjuna that I'll tell you only my principal glories because the glories are exhaustively are impossible to tell.

Thank you.