​Gita 10.26 – ​The transcendental manifests among the celestial

Thank you how he manifests himself as the vibhutis as various opulent manifestations in this world and like most of the verses in this section he also gives here four examples of vibhuti ashwathah sarvabhrukshanam vruksha this tree ashwathah the banyan tree usually ashwathah is translated as banyan tree the banyan tree is often used to symbolize antiquity and authority banyan tree lives for a very long long time and it not just it has not just a thick really thick and strong stem which connects it and roots it in the ground but along with that it has other branches also which to extend from the branches often down to the earth and further strengthen the trees foundations in terms of its connectedness with the ground so vruksha trees are themselves sources of shelter and wood and especially trees symbolize something that stays for a very long time and offers a lot of things and in that terms of symbolization the ashwathah stays for a very long time and offers a lot of things it spreads out widely and it gives shade it becomes a residing place for many birds and other forms of wildlife it gives shelter for travelers and especially because of its thick stem and its multiple branches that come down it is not very easily cuttable and its non-cuttability indicates that it is special in terms of being fairly enduring in some ways you understand that it represents an opulence of Krishna rishi word is usually translated as sages means it can mean the god among the sages or the sage among the gods of the gods refers to the fact that while narada has the freedom to move amongst different lokas with great ease comes to earth goes to heaven goes to various places quite effortlessly he is free like a cosmonaut without depending on a space suit to travel around so he is known as especially the advisor of the gods and thus it is that he is called as deva rishi so here we often see that the devatas are advised by narada for example when the devatas attack Hiranyakashipu's palace and they arrest Vyadu so that they can deal with her child after he is born Narada Muni tells them that actually her son is going to be a great devotee of Mahabhagavata and on hearing this they immediately give up their whole intention of aggression and circumambulate and offer obeisances to the progeny in the womb of Vyadu and they depart so to be able to turn back an army which has come with an intention to attack which is on the verge of success in its intended mission to get that army to turn back and just go away that requires a lot of influence and authority and that influence and authority Narada Muni has over the devatas wherein he just speaks a few words the devatas have such faith that if Narada Muni says that son is going to be Mahabhagavata, it's true they don't question his word and say but what if so many astrologers make predictions sometimes the predictions work out to be true, sometimes they don't better we'll be on the safe side, maybe we'll keep her under arrest and we'll see if her son actually turns out to be Mahabhagavata then maybe we'll spare him, otherwise we'll kill him let's not take chances that sort of argument might have been expected because after all Hiranyakashipu is a terrible demon and to say that his son would not just be not demoniac but would be an exalted Mahabhagavata it's a statement that stretches credibility and requires a substantial amount of faith for acceptance and that faith the devatas had because they accepted Narada Muni as their authority they saw Narada Muni as a sage and thus he is appropriately called as Devirushina so there are various sages and they are all respected but the authority that Narada Muni enjoys among people all over the world and especially among the devatas is distinctive because he is among the devashis considered the manifestation of Krishna he is described as the mentioned manifestation among the devashis Gandharvanam Chitra Ratha Gandharvanam Gandharva is a higher celestial being especially known to sing very sweetly he can also sometimes fight formidably also so Gandharva Moun is Gandharva, Chitra Ratha is considered to be the best singer Mahabharata describes how Gandharva he became a friend of Arjuna how he was able to in a fight he was sent by Indra to humble Duryodhana Chitra Ratha was such a powerful fighter that he actually defeated Duryodhana Karna, Dushyasana, Shakuni who all fled and Duryodhana was eventually arrested and he was released by the grace of Yudhishthira so at that time Chitra Ratha in the fight between Arjuna and Chitra Ratha where Arjuna didn't defeat Chitra Ratha Arjuna burned the chariot of Chitra Ratha he said that I will be known as Dagdha Ratha not one who has a beautiful chariot but one who has a burned chariot and the chariot was restored afterwards and he was returned to his celestial position after telling that he had come on the behalf of Indra to humiliate Duryodhana who had come with the intention of humiliating the Pandavas and in Siddhanam Kapilomunihi Kapilomunihi that Kapiladeva is an avatar of the lord who is described in the Bhagavatam's third canto especially he is a great sage, a very realized sage and he is a Sankhya in amongst the schools of thought 6th school of philosophy it is said Sankhya is often associated with Yoga Sankhya is more of theoretical analysis and Yoga is to some extent the techniques for gaining practical realization and on the path of Yoga one achieves certain perfection so Kapiladeva is an example of a person who has both the intellectual insights as well as the mystical skills that come on the perfection of the path of Yoga because the ultimate perfection in Yoga is pure absorption in transcendence and that teaching of pure emotion is also central to the teachings that Kapiladeva offers to Devavati and herein Yogis are considered to be respected people who are performing austerities for gaining something higher that's how it was in the Mahabharata's culture and Krishna takes the respectable people among them the respectability of the Yogis and he underscores that Kapiladeva is a formidable Yogi he is very wise and very austere he represents the appearance of the supreme in the path of among in the category of the Siddhas.