Gita 11.40 Acknowledge Krishna’s presence everywhere and appreciate it where it is specially manifest

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Thank you. So, Arjuna is offering obeisances to the Vishwaroopa over here, more specifically to the Kaalaroopa, which has been revealed earlier. When Arjuna asked in 11.31, When Arjuna asked, who are you? Oh, fears of form, I am not able to understand your intention.

At that time it was revealed, Time I am the destroyer of the worlds. And on understanding the awesomeness of this manifestation of the absolute truth, of this feature of the universal form, Arjuna becomes overwhelmed with fear, with reverential fear, and thus he offers prayers in the mood of awe and reverence. And in the previous verse it was written that, It was said, I offer obeisances hundreds of times and then I offer obeisances again and again and yet again.

And that mood of reverential offering of obeisances is continued here. I offer obeisances from the front and I offer obeisances from behind. I offer obeisances from all directions.

Sometimes if we go to a temple, and in the temple, say the deities are in the main altar, and we offer obeisances to the deities, but then we look on the right side, and we see, oh, there is a beautiful picture of Krishna over there. And then we offer obeisances there. And we look around and we see on the left side also there is a picture of Krishna.

We offer obeisances there. Now if we see pictures of Krishna everywhere all around, and if we know this is God manifesting in so many places, I have to offer obeisances everywhere. Where all can I offer obeisances? Just as we will have a crisis over there, so like that, Arjuna also has a crisis because the Vishwaroopa which he is seeing, it is not localized in one place.

It is pervading everywhere. In text 15 and 16 when Arjuna was speaking, describing the Vishwaroopa, he said that, Oh, Lord, I can't see your end, I can't see your beginning, I can't see your middle. All that I can see is Vishwaroopa.

Oh, Lord, Oh, One who are the Lord of the universe, I see, I behold your universal form. That universal form has no beginning, no middle, no end. Later on in the 20th text it was stated that, that this Vishwaroopa was actually touching the sky.

That means it was pervading not only left, right, with no center, it was also pervading right up to the top. And therefore, when the Vishwaroopa is everywhere, where do I offer obeisances? That question comes up. And therefore Arjuna says, I offer obeisances from the front and I offer obeisances from the back also.

I offer obeisances from all directions. Sometimes we may be in a room where there are pictures of Krishna on all the walls. And then we may wonder if I lie down to sleep in that room, whichever direction I point my legs, my legs are pointing towards Krishna.

So what can I do at that time? I have to sleep and my legs are going to point in some direction. So if possible, we may try to remove the pictures of Krishna from that direction or we point in a direction where our legs are not directly pointing towards Krishna, slightly in between some pictures. But if that is not possible, then ultimately we have to take rest.

So even if some legs point, even if legs point towards Krishna, Krishna is not at fault, finding God who is going to blame us for that when it is unavoidable. But just as we would want to make a, we have a reverential disposition, whenever we see Krishna manifesting, so also Arjuna expresses a reverential disposition. Here, I offer obeisances from all directions.

It's interesting that while Arjuna is describing this, Arjuna is expressing this, there is no indication from Sanjay that Arjuna actually got down to the ground and offered dandavats. No. It was more of folding the hands and bowing the head.

There are obeisances that can be offered in different ways. Respectfully bowing the head down, folding one hand, that's also one kind of obeisances. And that was what Arjuna was doing.

But while doing this, he was verbalizing. And here in his verbalization, he is stating that I offer obeisances left, right, from the back and from all directions. Vikramasam Anantavirya Your strength, O Lord, is unlimited.

Amitavikrama And your fame, your glory, your heroism, it is also amit. It is unending. There can be, in this world, champions.

Champions are those who outclass everyone else by their performance. It can be a cricket batsman, champion, batsman, say, during a particular series, somebody performs very well. So here, the point that is made is that this is the, so every champion, they may be champion for some time.

Either the world's number one test batsman or the world's number one cricket batsman, one-day batsman. Now, there is one person who is at the top for some time. But after some time, that person is displaced and somebody else becomes the number one.

Because, no matter how legendary a player may be, no one's powers last forever. And when their powers get exhausted, at that time, someone else displaces them. But that is not the case with Krishna because Amitavikrama, Anantavirya, he has unlimited power.

But the power and the glory that it brings, that is Amita, it never diminishes. It is, inexhaustible. So far, especially the sports stars, there is a peak period, maybe from the ages of 20 to 30 or 35.

After that, their performance starts falling because they are not just fighting against their opponents while they are playing matches, they are also fighting against their own body. Whose vitality, whose strength, whose speed, whose grace, whose reflexes, all those start slowing down. But Krishna is God and He is God eternally.

His strength is unlimited and the strength stays with Him inexhaustibly for all time. Anantavirya Amitavikramastham You O Lord, Arjuna is recognizing the specific glory of the Supreme and is praising Him for that. Sarvam Samapno Shuddho Si Sarvaham So someone may ask that why in some places Krishna may be displayed more openly, other places Krishna may not be displayed so openly.

There can be multiple reasons for that. Sometimes it might just be socio-political considerations where the government is hostile to the display of any picture that are considered sacred because the government considers it to be idolatry. But even in such situations, Krishna is always present in the heart and Krishna is present, Krishna pervades all of existence.

And thus when we approach Him recognizing that Krishna pervades everything, then we understand that Krishna is always close to us, Krishna will surely help us and that Krishna has not left us. And thus we can, by this understanding of Krishna's pervasiveness, increase our confidence and move forward confidently in whatever services we will be doing.