Gita 11.48 Pious action doesn’t qualify us for devotional vision

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thank you Krishna is speaking to Arjuna and he is talking about the speciality of the darshan of the Vishwa Rupa that has been bestowed to him bestowed by Krishna to Arjuna and in that connection he states in the previous verse he has stated that I have happily bestowed on you something which is the form which is so special which is original, which is primeval which is pervasive and which has not been bestowed on anyone else and Krishna further underscores the rarity, speciality of the favor bestowed on Arjuna in enabling him to see the Vishwa Rupa when he says that this cannot be attained by any other means Naveda Yajna Dayanayi Naveda Yajna so it is not by doing the sacrifices mentioned in the Yajnas, it is not by doing Adhyan not by studying, not by giving charity Daanayi Nachakriyaabhir, nor by doing various kinds of fruitive activities Tapobhirukri, nor by doing extreme austerities, none of these Evam Rupah Shakyaham Indraloke, by none of these in this world can this form be seen Evam Rupah, this form cannot be seen by any of these Drashtum Tvadanyena Kuru Praveera Drashtum Tvadanyena, apart from you nobody has seen it Kuru Praveera Kuru refers to the overall dynasty to which Arjuna belongs and Praveera he is the hero, Praveera is foremost among the heroes, so here he says that Arjuna this form is so rare to see normally it is understood in the Vedic culture that rare things which are not easy to see, the favor to see those things that comes by by profuse amount of piety and there are various ways in which pious credits can be accumulated and this word lists some of those activities by which one may be able to accumulate pious credits and it stresses that actually by none of these can one get to see this form, Evam Rupah Shakyam Loke, so these are not the means to behold this form so the extreme attitudes towards approaching the Lord, one is to think that piety is of no relevance at all the piety doesn't matter at all and the second is piety is all that matters now ultimately the revelation of the Lord comes by his mercy, it doesn't come by our piety but our piety can help us be in a position where we may have the disposition we may have the situation where the likelihood of receiving mercy may be more the pious are often likely to be are more likely to associate with the saintly they are more likely to perform the activities of bhakti and thus it's more likely that they will intentionally or unintentionally do the things that will make that will help them receive the mercy of the Lord but there's no guarantee in this that one will necessarily receive the mercy of the Lord through this because the Lord's mercy comes is independent it is comes by his sweet charm he's of course kind-hearted and he does bestow mercy on those who sincerely beseech it at the same time the mercy is mercy is something which is transcendental so now we have the example of Yashodamayi when she wanted to tie Krishna it was two fingers short the two fingers being short was spanned first by one finger of her endeavor and the second finger of Krishna's mercy so we could say that our endeavor is like piety we may endeavor by cultivating piety of course that's not precise analogy because the endeavor which Yashodamayi was doing was also devotional service she was trying to tie Krishna out of a desire to serve Krishna she was feeling if Krishna is mischievous then he will not have a bright future and in order to because of she because she cared so much for Krishna's future that she was doing she did such a thing like tying Krishna it may not seem at all like a service but it was done with the attitude of service so piety is different from bhakti still for those who don't know about bhakti they may express the goodness of their heart through piety so they may give charity and they may give charity because of the because they may give charity for some causes which may not be exactly devotional but they are giving that charity out of the goodness of their heart and they with their understanding see that this is the best way to express that goodness and to the extent the goodness is expressed is being expressed to that extent it is positive but the revelation of the Lord's form does not come by any of these now Krishna is quite emphatic in stressing this difference when he lists the activities standard activities yajna, dana, tapa which are considered activities by which we can get piety Krishna says by none of these yajna, dana, tapa yajna, dana, tapa so he mentions some other activities also of course adhyana also he mentions, study and kriya is fruitive activity kriya, abhinita, pavirogri by none of these can you see can this form be seen and then further he adds the word kurupraveera Arjuna you are the best of the Kurus and you have a glorious qualification at the same time it is not that qualification that enabled you to see my form it was maya prasannena tava arjunedam I cheerfully bestow the darshan of this form on you because ahan mahad anugraha it was a great anugraha which I did on you and Arjuna appreciate this recognize the special favor that has been done on you and by appreciating it I cherish it and the next verse Krishna will say that basically through these verses Krishna is questioning the rationale of Arjuna in saying I don't please please remove this vision and please replace it with the vision of chatur bhuja and then of the andhu bhuja so Krishna is stressing that just see how rare it is and why are you not wanting to see it of course another level we could say another way we could look at it is that we could say that Krishna is testing Arjuna Krishna is telling him that oh Arjuna this form is rare special and by refusing to see it Krishna Arjuna is revealing that he is not interested in anything except Krishna two-handed form he's interested in a sweet intimate relationship with Krishna and thus he's asking that Krishna please show me that form and that form alone thank you.