​Gita 10.22 – God’s opulence pervades and sustains all life everywhere

Bhagavad Gita 10.22 Vedā nāma-sāma-vedosmi Devā nāma-smi-vāsavaha Indriyā nāma-manas-chāsmi Bhūtā nāma-smi-cetanā So here, Krishna is continuing description of the list of vibhūtis and in that connection he is describing four more items here so Vedā nāma-sāma-vedosmi Krishna takes the Vedas the Vedas were the standard sources of knowledge for millennia for people they are standard sources of knowledge even now in that cultural context they were recognized as standard sources of knowledge and Krishna speaks over here Vedā nāma-sāma-vedosmi among the Vedas, I am the Sāma Veda now the Sāma Veda is considered to be the most poetically beautiful Veda it comprises songs that are extremely melodious to sing the Rig Veda is considered to be in one sense the first or the foremost Veda but the Sāma Veda is the aesthetically most appealing and illuminating Veda so whatever is attractive Krishna will give the general principle at the end of this series whatever is attractive in any category Krishna explains that that represents him so the Vedā nāma-sāma-vedosmi and Devā nāma-asvi-vāsavaha so Vāsavaha refers to Indra who is the king of the Devatas king of the Gods Devā nāma-among the Gods, I am Vāsavaha here the key point to understand is that Krishna is revealing to us how we can think of him so among the Devatas, there are various levels of Devatas and there is Mahavishnu, Vahesh who are in charge of three modes but they are the primal Gods of course Vishnu is in an entirely different category if we want to consider them as a continuity or as different levels of categorization so Indra also goes to Brahma for help at times Indra also goes to Shiva and of course Indra goes with Brahma and Shiva to Vishnu so Indra is definitely not the supreme personality and he is not even supreme among the Gods per se but when the word God is used in different context, it may mean different things so especially in the functional context if we talk about the administrative Devatas administrative Gods, then in that context it refers to Devatas who more or less live at the level of the heavenly planets and among them Indra is their king so Kartikeya is the commander just like in a kingdom the commander is sometimes the king and the commander is some other person who is under the king and the king is still the sovereign so like that there are other Godevatas also who have their distinct powers but in the Vedic cosmology Indra is the king of the Devatas so here there is also a palindrome palindrome is when one word is turned around it refers to the same thing so Veda and Deva Vedana Samaveda Usmi and Devanam so Vedana and Devanam so Veda and Deva are more or less the syllables are Veda, Deva it's almost similar this is another feature that reminds us that Bhagavad Gita is not just a work of philosophy it's a poetic work of philosophy and then Krishna continues among the senses I am the mind this verse drives home the point that actually no one in this world can claim to be entirely independent because we are all driven and dragged by our senses and even if somebody appears very sense controlled at one level still they are dragged by their mind and thus everyone is actually caught and consumed by material nature and even people, Krishna talks about people who end up deceiving themselves and becoming hypocritical in 3.6 when he says that karmendriyāṇi sañjñāmy ayāsate manasa smaranindriyārthān vi mūḍhātmā mithācārasa ucchate karmendriyāṇi sañjñāmy ayāsate somebody controls the working senses ayāsate manasa smaranindriyārthān vi mūḍhātmā but they meditate on the sense objects, the mind is contemplating dwelling on the sense objects and such people are hypocritical the point being made here is that the senses it may be possible to control but to control the mind is much more difficult so in our body mind mechanism which we have for interfacing with this world the senses drag us around but an even more powerful dragger than the senses is the mind so the mind is the most powerful element in the body and thus Krishna says that if we consider among the senses I am the mind so now Sankhya has different modes of analysis at different times and in different situations it places it explains things differently so sometimes the mind is analysed and counted as a part of subtle body and other times the mind is counted along with the senses so in 15.7 also Krishna will talk about manah shishtān indriyān prakṛti sthāni karṣati so manah along with the mind the six senses so the five knowledge acquiring senses and the sixth is the mind so there also the mind is classified along with the senses so here Krishna classifies the mind with the senses and then further he states that actually the mind is the strongest among all the senses Krishna also says in 15.8 in the Bhagavad Gita that all the senses are centred around the mind that's 15.9 actually these are the five knowledge acquiring senses presiding over them is the mind and using all of these the soul tries to enjoy this world the sense objects in it and because the mind is so formidable controlling the mind is the biggest challenge and fixing the mind on Krishna is the best way to navigate this challenge and to the extent we navigate it to that extent we will become peaceful and joyful in our lives Krishna says that among the living beings for the living beings I am chetana chetana is consciousness so the word bhūta can mean existence and bhūta can mean can also specifically mean living beings in existence so bhūta namasmi chetana means among the living beings I am the consciousness so what distinguishes the living beings from the non-living beings is their consciousness that is the defining characteristic now when we go say to shopping mall and there we may see a mannequin the mannequin looks may be shaped and dressed in a way that looks attractive and some people may get agitated by that also but that does not have consciousness on the other hand there may be a person may be an attendant over there and that attendant has consciousness so the difference in form they may look similar but the attendant is a living person the mannequin is simply a insentient statue so what differentiate the two is consciousness bhūta namasmi chetana now consciousness is the defining characteristic of the soul and the soul is also a part of Krishna here of course Krishna is focusing more on describing opulences so whatever catches our attention wherever Krishna tells us that when we see this attention catching capacity we should remember that this attention catching capacity comes from him and in that way instead of getting caught in worldly infatuations we can strive to become attracted to him we can strive to become devoted to him so here Krishna starts from the textual level goes to the cosmic level so when he says devānām asmi vāsavahā and then after that he comes to the level of the self the body and then to the self indriyānāṁ manas chāsmi bhūtānāṁ asmi chetana this way Krishna gives us in one verse practically a textual universal and personal tour of existence and helps us to see his pervasive presence within.