Gita 11.09 The universal form is the ultimate mystical vision

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

Thank you. Bhagavad Gita 11.9 This 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita moves according to three levels of narrational structure.

The outermost narrational structure is, not necessarily the outermost, the first we could say is Krishna is going to describe to Arjuna what he is going to see when the Vaishnava Rupa is being revealed. The second is when Arjuna describes what he is seeking. The third is what Sanjay describes with Rashtra, what Krishna is revealing.

So, first is Krishna describing to Arjuna what he will see, that is from verses 4 to 8. And from 9 to 13, it is Sanjay describing to Yudhishthira what Krishna showed. And from 14 onwards, for almost 20 verses, it is Arjuna describing what Krishna has seen, or Arjuna describing what he himself is seeing or what Krishna has shown. So, in this, so let us see what exactly here is being said.

Krishna is being referred to by a very significant name here, Mahayogeshwar. So, what does this name mean actually? Mahayogeshwaroharihi. This means that Krishna is being referred to here as Hari, the supreme being, who is the supreme, he is not just yogi, he is not just yogish, he is Mahayogeshwar.

Yogi is a practitioner of yoga, yogish is the lord of yoga, Yogeshwar is a synonym of yogish, Mahayogeshwar is the great lord of yoga. So, yogis have the capacity to do certain mystical things which common people cannot do normally. Nowadays, most people conceive of yoga in terms of practical things, which are not really practical things means in terms of doing some postures which no one can, which people in general cannot sit in, that is what are considered as special.

But in terms of Mahayogeshwaroharihi, what it means is that Krishna is yogi, not just in terms of doing some yogic exercises, but actually when one does some yogic exercises, it is quite often thought that one acquires powers which common people do not have. And thus, yogis may be able to create some, say by praptasiddhi, they can do something which no one else, acquire things from far away, and various other things like that people can do. But a yogeshwara is one who can do not just these extraordinary things, but things are far, far more extraordinary.

And they are in terms of the capacity to deal with situations, to manifest things which are not possible for other people to manifest. So, for example, in praptasiddhi, a yogi may just stretch your hand and get some fruit which is somewhere far away in Afghanistan. One may well get that.

So, now this is manifesting something at the gross level, which is not visible normally. But to manifest the entire universe in a darshan, that is quite extraordinary. And interestingly, this is the second time or multiple times actually, Krishna has shown the Vishwaroopa.

But especially in the context of the Mahabharata, this is the second time. Earlier, before this, Krishna has shown the Vishwaroopa to Duryodhana. And although Duryodhana is stunned and overwhelmed initially on seeing the Vishwaroopa, later on he tries to downplay it by saying that it is actually nothing but some magic.

He says that this is simply some magic which Krishna has done. That means he argues that it is not that Krishna is God and he has demonstrated his divinity by demonstrating the universal form. Rather, it is that Krishna has actually demonstrated the extraordinary vision that nobody else, no other person can demonstrate.

And thus, he has demonstrated actually nothing short of his divinity. So, here we see that Krishna is God not simply because he is able to reveal something which nobody else is able to reveal. He is God because he has demonstrated that in various ways.

He is declared so by the great sages. He has explained philosophically a worldview which is theistic and which is transcendental. He has explained about the concordance of scripture, of Guru Sadhu Shastra, scripture and sages.

Chatur Shloka in Bhagavad Gita was 10.8 to 11. And then after that Arjuna confirmed reiterated his understanding based on how he said that all the great sages also have said the same thing. And now, Krishna is actually vindicating to the world his divinity by his demonstration of the Vishwa Rupa.

So, Krishna is not just a yogi or a yogi, she is Mahayogeshwara. This word Rupa Maishwaram can be correlated with earlier word Yoga Maishwaram. Pashyame Yoga Maishwaram had come earlier in 9.5 when Krishna has talked about how he is within this world and still not within this world.

How he is within the world but he is not limited to the world. Pashyame Yoga Maishwaram. So, here he talks about his inconceivable prowess is demonstrated through the form that he is within the world and still he is beyond the world.

He is bigger in the world. Krishna is within the world and still the world is within him. So, he is, he may seem to be like a charioteer on the war field but he may seem like a warrior on a charioteer in the war field in one place in the earth which is in one part of the universe.

But still Krishna is the supreme person who contains the whole universe within him and whose existence extends beyond this universe also. Thus, it is that Krishna demonstrates his divinity for the whole world to realize and relish. Paramam Rupa Maishwaram, the supreme opulence of form, the form which demonstrates the magnificence of Krishna, the magnificence of the transcendental supreme person, that is demonstrated in this Vishwaroopa Darshan.

It is very pregnant words with the words Bhaya Yogeshwarohari and Paramam Rupa Maishwaram especially conveying.