​Gita 11.11 – The visual demonstration reinforces the philosophical exposition

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

Thank you. So here it is said, Divya, Divine, Malya, Garlands, Ambara, that is, dress, Dharam, Dharam is Dharam, wearing.

Divine, fragrances, Gandha, Lepanam, they are smeared on the body. In every way this is astonishing. In fact, there are two describers.

Mayam means filled with and Sarvam means all. So in every way this is filled with astonishment. We have Anandamaya means filled with happiness.

So Ascharyamaya means filled with astonishment. Sarva Ascharyamayam Devam Anantam Vishwathomukham Anantam is unlimited. Vishwathomukham is all-pervading.

Prabhupada translates it there. So here Sanjaya is continuing the description of the universal form to Dhritarashtra and that connection he states that of Dhritarashtra. The previous verse also described how there was Divya that he was wearing divine ornaments and he was having divine paraphernalia in terms of weapons.

So that same Divya as an adjective is coming here again. So in the series of verses 11.10 and 11 main lines CD of 11.10 and AB of 11.11 there is a repetition of the word Divya and four times that word Divya comes to stress the divineness, the otherworldliness the extraordinariness of whatever is being seen. So before that in 11.10 there was the word Anek coming twice Anekavaktranayanam Anekadbhutadarshanam Anekadivyabharanam So there the word Anek comes thrice in ABC of 11.10 So here there is a ecstatic poetic rhapsody that is being manifested by Sanjay in his composition as he spontaneously describes the divine vision that he is having and in this divine vision he is exhibiting in this divine vision that he is beholding, not having so it is being given as he will tell at the end of the Bhagavad Gita that he was able to see all this and hear all this because of the grace of his Guru Vasaprasada Chitwan because of Yasas, Varshi was able to hear all this and here he continues that theme by declaring that he is actually seeing astonishing things Sarvaashcharyamayam Devam Dev is divine being, extraordinary being Sarvaashcharyamayam normally Aashcharya, amazement or astonishment is an emotion we experience when we find ourselves caught in something which we had not expected and something which there can be when we say this is not what I expected that can mean in a positive sense something falls below our range of expectation and it can also refer to something that comes above our range of expectation so if the Indian hockey team goes to Olympics then if India doesn't even qualify that will be a disappointment but with hockey being played on AstroTurf India is no longer a dominant power as it was 50 years ago so if India wins the hockey world cup that is also not what we expected so there can be exceeding of expectations and there can be falling below expectations now when something falls below expectations then there is disappointment when somebody rises above expectations then there is astonishment so now Arjuna also did not know what to expect what he would see when Krishna would reveal the universal form and Sanjay was there in the palace in Kurukshetra when Krishna had revealed that form to Duryodhana primarily when Duryodhana had come to arrest Duryodhana had attempted to arrest Krishna when Krishna had come as a Shantidoot at that time he that is Sanjay was also there but the magnificence of the form was such that everybody was blinded practically speaking and of course Dhritarashtra had been granted vision to see by Krishna's mercy on Dhritarashtra's request but as will be later revealed what Arjuna has shown far exceeds what Duryodhana had been shown Duryodhana basically wanted Krishna basically wanted to show Duryodhana an awesome display of power by which the arrogance of that prince would subside in contrast here Arjuna is requested out of affection and humility and a desire to know and to establish Krishna's glory to the world and thus when Krishna reveals his form he reveals it in his full splendor and as will be later explained that he will reveal his Kaalarupa also the form of time which is simply astonishing and it's not just astonishing it is scaring you know Kshatriya like Arjuna will be scared by seeing that form so here at this point Sarvaashchere mayam devam the form exceeds all expectation exceeds all conception exceeds all description and thus it causes amazement it causes astonishment anantam ishvato mukham it's unlimited some people say that the Vedic conception of God is anthropomorphic actually however the human conception or the human body itself is theomorphic it is based on God's form in that sense it is the foremost form for attaining proximity to God through spiritual realization and here Krishna is reinforcing the philosophical teachings with a visual demonstration at the start of the Gita it was Arjuna's eyes his desire to see that led him into illusion and he says I want to see who are there on the other side wanting to fight so the eyes that led earlier to delusion will now get a demonstration of the divine magnificence thus the philosophical exposition is reinforced through a visual demonstration the teachings of the Gita are astonishing but that astonishment requires appreciating that astonishment or becoming astonished by appreciating those teachings requires a sharp intelligence and a deep commitment to study and understand the subtle and multilevel message of the Gita but beholding the awesome universal form is an amazingly forceful confirmation of the visual demonstration that happened earlier and thus Krishna is both fulfilling Arjuna's request as well as reinforcing his message through this demonstration.