Gita 11.43 Our response on coming to know others’ greatness is shaped by our relationship with them

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

in a steady and swift way.

Thank you. So here Krishna is speaking Krishna is being addressed by Arjuna and how the dynamic of the Krishna-Arjuna relationship has changed is being demonstrated in this verse. So he is saying Pitasilokasya that you are the father Charasya of all moving and non-living beings Tumasya Pujyasya Gurur Gariyan Now the father is respected and also familiarity that come in the relationship but Pujyasya you are worshipable like Gurur Gariyan you are greater than even the spiritual master.

In fact how great are you? That's what's the most There can be many different spiritual masters but there is only one supreme being that position will be stressed here when he says Natwat Samostya there is no one equal to you Natwat Samostya Bhedikaha Kutovanyo You have to speak of anyone being superior to you Abhedikaha Indi Lokatrayopya Pratimaprabhav that in all the three words your Prabhav, your power, your influence of Pratima there is no comparison with it So Krishna and Arjuna just at the start of the Bhagavad Gita are friends who are acting as one of whom is chosen to become a charioteer for his other friend. Krishna has become the charioteer for Arjuna but then in the start of the second chapter when Arjuna surrenders to Krishna Shishteyam Swadhi 2.7 at that time the dynamic of their relationship changes and that dynamic changes at that time what happens is Arjuna from the position of a friend shifts to the position of a disciple and now there is a further change wherein now he is very apologetic, he realizes that this is the supreme being what was I doing thinking that I could be a friend with him this is the absolute truth now we need to know that Krishna Krishna's supreme position, Krishna's divinity was not unknown to Arjuna he had heard about this earlier also 2.8 as he said earlier that what he has spoken now, it has been spoken before I have heard it from the sages 2.8 so so 2.8 all these sages at different times in the Mahabharata have spoken this knowledge which also included talk about how Krishna is the absolute truth but in the context of the Gita that was and because of the intimacy of the relationship between Krishna and Arjuna that knowledge was not at the forefront and even that knowledge is there still as was mentioned a few verses later and as was mentioned at the start of the chapter also that this particular vision has never been seen before so in that sense this awe inspiring display of divine power is something which is simply incredible and this has brought Arjuna to bring someone to their knees that means to get them to accept defeat to get them to accept defeat so here there is no defeat in the sense that there is no war going on no war or quarrel or conflict going on between the two it is simply a mistake it is simply a revelation not a mistake so much, it is a revelation from Arjuna because of which revelation for Arjuna of Krishna is an extraordinary power and which made him feel that he had committed a mistake in terms of not having done the right in terms of having treated Krishna in too familiar way so here he is saying that oh lord, in the next verse he will ask for forgiveness but in this verse he is addressing the point of their mutual positions in the previous verse it is it is indicated that when he says hey Krishna so there Arjuna feels that sometimes I thought of myself as superior to you because I was a member of the ruling generation in the ruling family, you were not but he says what to speak of I being superior no one can be equal to you also that you are the father of all of existence and then so there is a increasing reference of reverence in this verse so first father there is a natural respect for a father father in a person, in a family but beyond the father there is the spiritual master and not only the guru but you are greater than the guru and how great are you actually that if no one is equal to you then who can be superior to you so how absurd it was for me to think in any way that I was better than you what to speak of me there can be no one who can be better than you there can be no one who can even be equal to you in all the three words your influence is unparalleled so the point being made here is that Krishna is asamoordhvaha this word comes in Bhagavatam also in asamo there is no one equal to him urdhva no one superior to him God exists in his own category of being as the absolute truth now the important thing for us to know is that we all are parts of the supreme being when we love someone we delight in someone we delight in the glory of that person when we when we envy someone when we agonize in the glory of that person suppose a close friend of us a close friend wins some competition we would be delighted but if arch rival wins a competition which we had wanted to win and far from it delighted dismayed dismayed not only because we did not win it because other person won it when there is devotion there is great appreciation for the Lord's glory and with this appreciation for the Lord's glory comes a joy in his greatness so we feel happy when we understand how great he is indeed we feel that in appreciating his greatness actually it is we who are feasting it is we who are delighting it is we who are celebrating because it is he's our Lord rather than we seeing him as somebody else we see him as connected to us and thus we feel delighted in his glories and such is the delight that Arjuna has expressed earlier also in the 10th chapter when he said that Vistarena Bhuvya kathayatruptir hi shruto nastime amrutam Krishna's peace be your glories in detail because I want to hear more and more about them and a similar mood of appreciation will come through here also when he is expressing his verbalization of Krishna's glories of course right now that appreciation is tinged with some fear through which Arjuna is recovering and will recover fully when Krishna changes from his ghastly form to his sweet form that will happen in the next 10 verses thank you.