Gita 13.17 The all-round glory of the Absolute includes its glory as the destroyer

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 13.17 here what is being talked about is the gaya, the object of knowledge the absolute truth and in this section the commentators are sometimes themselves paradoxical in explaining which section refers to which verse refers to which aspect of the absolute truth some verses can be said to refer to the anuatma, to us souls and some verses can be said to refer to the vibhuatma, the supreme lord but either way the important thing is that they point to the object of knowledge and Prabhupada generally focuses on saying that these refer to the absolute truth and we have followed that analysis over here bhaktam that this one absolute truth is non-segregated is non-divided, undivided in all living beings although it appears as if seated as if divided that this absolute truth is the maintainer of all living beings there is no again that object of knowledge is the devourer and is the generator also what is going on over here again this verse can also be said to refer to the parmatma aspect of the absolute truth that the parmatma is present in the hearts of all living beings is unseparated is undivided there is one parmatma and that one parmatma so now in the literal sense if we see that the super soul is present in my heart and super soul is present in your heart and if he is present in both hearts that means he must be two he is divided into two but he is actually one and to give a digital example or to give a game from a example from a set of video games normally when a person is playing a video game that person has one avatar the avatar in philosophical sense refers to the absolute truth as a devote as absolute truth having manifested in this world same word avatar in this material world in the digital world refers to refers to the notion of what is what refers to the projected identity that a person has in the digital world normally a person has one avatar especially in a particular game setting but suppose that person could have two avatars and that same person could be the hero and the same person could be the villain same person could be the thief and the same person could be the police so normally when we see say two, even in a digital game when we see two, a police and a thief we normally think that they are two, they are separate so usually we associate separate forms with separate beings and when the super soul is present in separate in separate living beings we assume that the super soul is also separate so this super soul is it appears separated but he is he is actually situated in all living beings as if he is one although he appears separated he is not separated because all the manifestations that are there in all living beings of the super soul are manifestations of that same one supreme being they are not multiple beings they are all one being Bhuta Bharatnu is the maintainer of all living beings is also the devourer and the generator or the developer this also can seem contradictory, can be contradictory now say creating and maintaining that is understandable the parents give birth to children and the parents maintain the children but when it is Krishnu the absolute truth is the destroyer also is the devourer that sounds quite scary which parent would be the devourer of their own children what is going on over here now we do see this concept of Krishnu discussed and demonstrated in the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita where it is said that so in your wide open mouth the various living beings, the warriors are entering and as they enter they are being destroyed and you are devouring them actually that vision can be very scary and gory it is said that their heads are colliding against the, crashing against the teeth of Vishwarupa and thus they are getting destroyed and further further it is said that the absolute truth is licking the blood when that is coming off the smashing of the heads against the teeth of the absolute truth so the glory of God is not one sided, it is multi sided in fact it is all sided so in this world creation is a wondrous thing maintenance also is we don’t think of it as wondrous because often it is laborious but the way the body maintains itself we put food into the body but beyond that there are lots of things that go inside the body that we are not even aware of by which the body is maintained that is also wondrous and if we can if we don’t feel threatened by the conception of death if we understand that actually I as a soul am eternal and if we focus on that aspect of the absolute truth then we will understand that actually the absolute truth is no is not an ordinary thing the absolute truth is we can, we needn’t project our conceptions of greatness on the absolute truth but we can focus on recognizing the absolute truth’s glory on the absolute truth’s terms that would mean recognizing that actually the absolute truth is all powerful the absolute truth in return the absolute truth is the greatest of all beings and as such nothing happens without the sanction of the absolute truth so when we say the absolute truth is a devourer that simply means that the absolute truth is actually the source of the force of destruction that envelops this world at periodic intervals and the point of the absolute truth is not to destroy but the point of the absolute truth is to ensure that the temporary makes way for the eternal that actually from the temporary we can move towards the eternal by recognizing that we at our core are spiritual that we ourselves are eternal and the destruction of the temporary impels us to direct our consciousness towards the eternal and thereby attain the eternal this by appreciating our eternal identity and by appreciating the lord’s intention of directing our focus towards the eternal identity we can appreciate his aspect of the destroyer also