​Gita 11.08 Our vision is a function of our qualification

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.

thank you I am exhibiting. So later on we will come to know that nobody else in the Kurukshetra war field saw the universal form. It was at that place the form was revealed and it was not at that place because at that particular place Arjuna was granted a higher vision.

So now here we can look at the point that our vision is a function of our qualification. Just like, suppose we are working on a very big mainframe kind of computer where we have just one of the, we are working on one of the ports, there may be many different people working on that computer and depending on the trustworthiness of different people, different people may have different levels of access. So we may have a particular level of access, others may have another level of access and still others may have yet another level of access.

So like that we all may have, we may all say that we are all actually working on the same computer, but we are not working on the same computer in the sense that we are all seeing things, we are all seeing things differently. Different people are seeing things from the perspective of their level. So if they look at the computer, they may see something that others, if a person has a higher level of access, they will be able to see more things which the other people will not be able to see.

So from that perspective, if we consider that we are all individuals and we are all at different levels of spiritual evolution and being at different levels of spiritual evolution means that we have different capacities for perception and having different capacities for perception would mean that, so just as a person who is simply a data entry operator will be allowed to access certain kinds of files in the computer and a person who is say the CEO, they can have much broader levels of access. Similarly the universal form is a mystical vision to which not everyone has access. So the other people on the war field are not able to see and Krishna tells Arjuna that even you are not able to see, oh Arjuna, therefore I will give you a special vision.

I will give you the vision by which you will be able to see this form and by seeing this form your aspiration to see my Rupa Aishwarya, your aspiration to see the extraordinary form that I manifest in this world, that will be fulfilled. So what Krishna is doing for Arjuna here is making him qualified, granting him the qualification. Divyam dadamite chakshuhu, so as Krishna is speaking this, Krishna is saying that I am giving it to you, dadameen, both the word Divya and dadameen have come earlier.

Divya has come of course several times, janma karma chame divyam, Krishna has told in 4.9. So Divya can mean celestial, it can mean spiritual. So Krishna has used the word for it to mean spiritual or transcendental in 4.9 and then he has used it to refer to heavenly in the sense of celestial not transcendental in 9.20 when it says that traividhyamam somapahapurta-papa yajney rishtvasvargatim prarthayante te punyam asadya surendralokam ashnanti divyan dividevabhogam so ashnanti divyan, there they will enjoy celestial delights, ashnanti divyan. So now when Krishna is using the word Divya over here, what is he referring to? The universal form is not transcendental.

Universe itself is material and the form which encompasses the universe is also material. At one level we could say that everything connected with the Lord is transcendental, but then we can, if we use that reasoning, then we can say when matter is connected with the Lord because matter is also energy, then is matter also transcendental? But then the word transcendental is itself usually defined as something that is beyond matter. So in the sense of universal form, being a revelation of matter, it is a material form, it is a non-transcendental form.

So here Divya, to say that it refers to transcendental is not appropriate. Here Divya refers to something which is material, but not material from our human perspective, it is celestial. So celestial is heavenly, from the higher planetary systems.

So it's a higher vision. Divyam dadami, Krishna uses the word dadami in dadami buddhiyo gamtam yenam amupayantite I am giving this to you Arjuna. Or I give the intelligence to the devotees, first sincerely I have to practice bhakti so that they can come to me.

So here he is saying that, oh Arjuna, I will give you the intelligence. I will give you the vision, not the intelligence, the vision over here. So Arjuna is at present a Kshatriya like all the other Kshatriyas who are there on the battlefield.

And from that Kshatriya level, Arjuna is elevated by Krishna to the level of transcendence, to the level of celestial vision by which he can see the universal form. He can see that which others are not seeing. Now Vishwacharya Thakur gives a rustic explanation for this and he says that actually at external level we could say there is elevation of vision from the earthly to the heavenly, from the terrestrial to the celestial.

But from other perspective Krishna is not just a, Arjuna is not just a mortal on the earth like other mortals. Arjuna is a very exalted devotee of the Lord. And he is able to see Krishna's personal two-handed form and see and relish it at close proximity.

And he has, to do this, to be in this position, he has the heart and eyes of love. And that is actually the highest vision. Premanjana-churita-bhakti-vilocanena Santaha-sadaiva-pridayeshu-vilokayanti So it is said that Santaha, the sages see within their heart with Premanjana-churita-bhakti-vilocanena See with the eyes of knowledge, with the eyes of love rather.

So that is very different from the, it's a very exalted level. So Krishna, when he is giving the eyes to Arjuna, he is actually downgrading his vision. From the eyes of love, which are transcendental, Krishna is now granting him a celestial vision by which Arjuna can see the universal form of Krishna.

Thank you.