​Gita 11.22 The vibhutis are astounded by the virata rupa

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Bhagavad Gita 11.22 Bhagavad Gita 11.22 Arjuna is continuing his description of the universal form and from the previous verse significant shift in attention shift in the focus of Arjuna's description earlier he said that how he was seeing in the first Upashyamitam he said how I am seeing O Lord in this universal form Brahmaji, Shiva all of them he is seeing Brahmanam Isham Kamalasanastam there he was talking about how all these are manifested within the universal form but now from the previous previous in this verse he is talking about how the universal form is the sight of the universal form is affecting the celestials and the celestials are not just they are not just a passive presence within the universal form they are active respondents to the universal form also and what is the response and who are the respondents specifically that is indicated in this verse Rudra Ditya Vasavo Echa Sadhyam Vishveshwino Maratas Shoshmapashyam Gandharva Yaksha Surasiddha Sangha so all these are components Rudra Aditya Vasava now if you see these people who are described they have just been mentioned recently in fact twice in the 10th chapter while describing his Vibhutis Arjuna mentioned most of these people now he talked about Rudranam Shankarachasmi Adityanam Mahamishnor so he talked about several of these that means when Krishna was talking about Vibhuti yoga he was mentioning that these are powerful beings and among them the most powerful the most outstanding manifests his opulence so similarly here when Krishna is speaking he is speaking in terms of the manifestation of the absolute at the celestial levels and how those powerful beings are also responding to this particular manifestation so the Vishwaroopam is a far more direct and awe-inducing manifestation of the absolute than specific manifestations within the universe that's why we see that Krishna gives a list of all these manifestations in the 10th chapter and after giving this list he states that after that in this chapter towards the end of that chapter he states that Athava Bahu Naitena Kimyatena Tava Arjuna Ishtabhya Hamidam Krishnam Ekamsena Sita Uchagat Ekamsena that Arjuna these are all innumerable manifestations within the universal form within the universe but actually the whole universe itself is sustained by me with my one fragment with my one fragment so that means Krishna's manifestations are at multiple levels and in the Vibhuti yoga chapter the manifestation that were described they were specific individuals who had their own individual existence but at the same time they also manifested transcendental potency.

Whereas in this case when Krishna is speaking he is talking about the whole universe as manifested through the universal form and this is a much bigger level of manifestation. So here it is described we could say that one level of manifestation of Krishna, a lower level manifestation, the Vibhuti manifestation is responding in awe to a higher level manifestation of Krishna that is his Virata Rupa manifestation. So, Krishna describes in this way that even the best of the celestials Rudra, Aditya, Vaishya, Sadhya they are also astonished by seeing his form and Vikshan, Teton, Vismitash, Chaivasarve, Vikshan, Teton they are all beholding with astonishment, Vismitash, with astonishment and they are beholding this form.

Now a brief listing, a brief similar listing was given by Krishna himself when he was about just before he revealed the universal form he gave a brief description from 11.5 to 8 about what Arjuna is going to see and at that time I use a few of these Pashyadityan Vasun, Pashyadityan Vasun Rudran, Ashvinav Marutas Tatha, Bahunya Dhrishtapurvani, Pashyashchargyani Bharatan, so there he described Aditya Vasun Rudran, Ashvinav Marutas Tatha, so five of them he described Aditya, Vasu Rudra, Ashvina and Maruta and out of these three in the first line two in the second line and if you see out of them here who all come Rudra, Aditya, Vasu, Ojas, Adhya, so Rudra, Aditya, Vasu already have come, Vishveshwinav, Marutas Chosmapascha, so then Ashvina and Maruta also come, so those five which were described by Arjuna there by Krishna there they are all mentioned here and Arjuna mentions in more, so if you see the details of Arjuna s description are more, Krishna is just giving a quick orientation so that Arjuna himself can see and respond to it, relish it and have appropriate responses just like if there is a beautiful painting that some painter is showing, the painter it is our painter or some exhibition in charge is showing, then if they describe in a few words the painting that can help the viewers to have proper perspective and appreciative frame of mind while beholding that painting, but they won t go, but the person who is exhibiting they won t go into a long-winded description of the painting that for the audience they will let themselves behold the painting and appreciate the painting, similarly here Krishna tells Arjuna that, rather similarly Krishna doesn t go into a very long-winded description just four words, whereas Arjuna himself gives a fairly detailed description of what all he is seeing, so in that mood Arjuna s gist is bigger, Arjuna includes those five celestial five categories of celestial beings, Rudra, Aditya, Vasava, Ashwina and Maruta, but along with that he is talking about some other categories also, Sadhya, Vishwa, Vishwa Prabhupada translate them as Vishwadevas and then he says Ashwinas are Dashvini Kumaras, they are considered the healers in heaven, Ushmapas, so Ushma is heat, water in heated state becomes steam and Ushma refers to steam, so Ushmapas, so it is those who eat steam and it is said that the ancestors, the forefathers, they often subsist on steam, so Ushmapas, so different people in the past universe live in different ways, they have different kinds of bodies and according to the kind of bodies they have, they also have corresponding kinds of diets, so this diet is so distinctive that they are defined by Ushmapas, Ushmapas, Prabhupada simply without getting into technicalities translate them as the forefathers and then further they are described Gandharva, Yaksha, Asura, Siddha, so Gandharva, Yaksha are of course well known, now it is interesting that the Asuras are also described, so we have the celestials, usually if we consider the three Lokas, then we in terms of English terminology, there is celestial, terrestrial and subterranean, celestial refers to what is above the earth, terrestrial refers to the earthly level and subterranean refers to that which is below the earth, so from the subterranean level Asuras, we just get one mention over there, but you know Asura, Siddha, Sangha and now Sangha means groups of, assemblies of, so it is not just one, wherever we see in the universe, there are, there are not just one or two people, there are assemblies of people and they have all come together and they are all offering, they are all beholding and are being astonished, bhikshante tvam vismitahs chaiva sarve, all of them are astonished, they are seeing in astonishment and thus what is described here is the result in terms of the amazement that is felt by everyone on seeing the universal form, earlier Arjuna had said that even the celestials were, the three worlds were lokatrayam pravachitam mahatman, they were troubled, so that troubled aspect was hinted at in the previous verse also, but right now Arjuna has spoken this tva adbhutam rupam ugram tavedam, so adbhutam, the astonishment is what is being stressed right now and then the ugram ta will be talked about in subsequent verses further and this way Arjuna continues his description of the universal form, which will continue in our,.