Details

Written by Patrick Misson

Parent Category: Content

Published: 20 October 2008

Created: 20 October 2008

Last Updated: 23 June 2014

Hits: 25453

 

CHAPTER X

THE UNITIVE RECOGNITION OF POSITIVE VALUES

Vibhuti Yoga

The initiative on the part of Krishna continues unabated,
and in fact is in some respects more accentuated than in
the last chapter which, as we have pointed out, together
with the present one, approaches the Absolute from two
viewpoints which may be said to be different only by a
negligible angle.

Intellectual and spiritual notions regarding the Absolute
were reconstructed to the end of the previous chapters, more
or less from the subjective standpoint in which the disciple's
doubts were dispelled and questions answered in a certain
order tacitly kept in mind by the author.

The disciple has his doubts dispelled, but all knowledge is
not gained by this. There is the positive conquest of
knowledge as it penetrates stage by stage from the
theoretically objective to full objective realism at the end of
the Gita.

It is easy to discern this turning point at the beginning of
this chapter. In the second verse Krishna does not hesitate to
praise himself as being non-understandable even to the gods
and sages.

There follows an enumeration of certain spiritual qualities
which are expressions of the absolutist way of life. What this
way of life accomplishes for the individual in terms of
wisdom or Self-realization is also stated by Krishna.
Then comes a section where Arjuna recognizes all that is
claimed by Krishna and more, thus making the adoption
between them as complete as possible. At the specific
request of Arjuna there follows a long enumeration of what
in this chapter is called the Vibhuti (unique value). The
value or glory of the Absolute can be known from the inside
of each individual. It is not so easy to speak of the Absolute
in terms of objective manifestations or other overt values.
The reason for this is a fact recognized by Arjuna himself in 
Verse 15. But it is highly necessary that for purposes of
life's guidance

419

here that we should have more realistic conceptions of
Absolute values than in just abstract or subjective terms.
Though with some hesitation therefore, Krishna here enumerates
all those highlights in the scheme of real things that we deal
with in this world. Though they do not cover all cases, they
offer to the seeker enough variety of examples by which the
unique glory of the Absolute could be recognized as it
penetrates through the commonplace. This is sufficiently
explained in the concluding verses of the chapter.
The overall characteristics of the Absolute as they are to
be recognized in the world of reality are summed-up finally
by the words vibhutimat srimad urjitam (whatever has
unique living value, abounding in grace and well founded
in truth).

It is true that only a fraction of the Absolute becomes
evident coming into the open for purposes of recognition
as stated in the last verse. But this does not detract from
the importance of recognizing the Absolute from the
standpoint of the person who wants to guide his life or
have aspirations in his life in keeping with the Absolute.
It should be noticed also in passing that these values do
not belong to any known codified religion. They are selected
from a wide range of values, some of them falling generally
within the scope of religion and ethics, but a few which may
be questioned as not failing strictly within what is usually
understood as the field of the sacred or the good, such as
the instances of the gambler and the god of love.
In spite of all these concrete references, we find that
even philosophically this chapter is on a par with the
previous one, for there are statements such as in Verse 4
where existence and even non-existence are said to be
issuing from the absolute outlined here.

 

1
Sribhagavan uvacha
bhuya eva mahabaho
srinu me paramam vachah
yat te 'ham priyamanaya
vakshyami hitakamyaya

Sri Krishna said:
Again, 0 Mighty-Armed (Arjuna), listen to My supreme word,
which I, desiring your well-being,shall tell you, so dear
(and favourably disposed).

420

This opening verse reveals unmistakably the kinship and
equality of status with the previous chapter with its initial
expression bhuya eva (furthermore). The expression
paramam vachah (supreme word) also indicates that the
subject-matter pertains to the highest Absolute.

Not only is Krishna actively interested in teaching Arjuna
because, as he says, he is dear, or as otherwise interpreted,
the teaching pleases him, but also because as he says, he is
interested in his welfare.

 

2
ne me viduh suraganah
prabhavam na maharshayah
aham adir hi devanam
maharshinam cha sarvasah

Neither the hosts of the gods nor the great sages know My
origin ; for I am indeed in every way the source of the gods
and the great sages.

 

Krishna is not just boasting and saying he is superior to
all others. He specifically refers to devas (divinities), i.e.
those spiritual ideals belonging to the hypostatic context of
the Vedic gods, and refers to sages who have existed in
India even before the time of the Vedas. The highest notions
held or represented by either of these groups fall short of
the notion of the Absolute.

By reference to himself as the source and the origin and not
as the end, the author intends to touch that neutral point
starting from which all the various manifestations are to be
later enumerated in an organic fashion.

Before going on to the ramifications, the root or source is
mentioned. The Absolute is appraised at its own zero or
neutral point here. Spiritual values suggested by deities or
sages are treated, as being only secondary in importance.
This superiority to all that is relative is what justifies the
use of the word paramam (supreme) in the previous verse.

 

3
yo mam ajam anadim cha
vetti lokamahesvaram
asammudhah sa martyeshu
sarvapapaih pramuchyate

He who understands Me as unborn and beginningless,
as the great Lord of the World, that man undeluded among
mortals is absolved from all sins.

421

This verse is meant to bring to balance once again the slight
asymmetry which was thought necessary in the previous verse,
in referring to the Absolute as the source.

As well as being the source, the Absolute should be
understood as at the same time marking a neutral point in
the revised terminology of this verse. Here the same
neutrality is referred to as ajam anadim (unborn without
beginning). The Absolute strictly belongs to the Eternal
Present and to speak of it as if it were anterior to the gods
and sages, had to be further clarified, as is done here.
The reference to papa (sin) is again to stress the fact that
even though the idea of the Absolute belongs to the domain
of wisdom or the understanding, it has the potency of
abolishing evil. This will be further defined in the next
two verses where opposites like existence and non-existence,
fear and courage, fame and obloquy, are cancelled out
against each other into a neutrality which must apply to
sin and virtue also.

Liberation from sins must therefore be understood more
correctly in that the question of sin or virtue does not
arise at all, that one is lifted out of the context of both,
and not in the sense that one gains virtue as against sin,
which interpretation would be against the spirit of the
chapter.

The reference to sin can also be understood in another
way. Sin, which has its opposite in virtue, constitutes the
first degree of reference to such a factor. By transcending or
negating such a dualistic conception, one arrives at a more
unified notion of sin itself by what is called its own double
negation. Such an explanation would not be against the
methods of Western theology either, as may be seen in the
writings of Aquinas. Thus it is Sin with the capital S which
may be said to be transcended here, by Wisdom with a capital
W, on the part of those who are capable of having a non-
dualistic notion of the Absolute as implied here.

If such an interpretation is invalid we have to take it that
this is the usual reference to sin as we find it throughout
the text, since the sense of sin was what started the
dialogue on Arjuna's side. The "sin" here may even have
been consciously referred to as common to both the
absolutist as well as the relativist contexts.

422

4
 buddhir jnanam asammohah
kshama satyam damah samah
sukham duhkham bhavo
'bhavo bhayam cha 'bhayam eva cha

5
ahimsa samata tushtis
tapo danam yaso yasah
bhavanti bhava bhutanam
matta eva prithagvidah

Reason, wisdom, non-delusion, patience, truth,
self-restraint, calmness, pleasure-pain, becoming
and non-becoming, sense of danger and security,

non-hurting, balance, contentment, austerity,
benevolence. fame-shame, are the various distinct
attitudes arising from Me alone.

 

These two verses enumerate a series of spiritual values,
some of them merely referring to conscious attitudes and
others referring to overt facts or acts. It is difficult to
imagine a common epistemological framework into which
these concepts fit, except by treating all of them
indifferently by making allusion to primary spiritual values,
irrespective of their being subjective, objective, or in the
form of an attitude or act.

We should imagine, as implied here, a man who is perfectly
established in the neutrality of the Absolute beginning to
exercise or enter into conscious or positive awareness
vis-à-vis the Absolute.

The first positive movements of the spirit as it were, are
enumerated indifferently, as having to do with primary
spiritual values. The most important feature to notice here
is that opposites are brought together soon after the
enumeration of such factors as self-restraint, forgiveness,
etc., which are global attitudes of the spirit. Pleasure-
pain, fear-courage and even existence-non existence are
the polarized movements within which the spirit swings,
as we depart more and more from the neutral source of
the spirit, indicated in the previous verse.

In Verse 4, which starts with reason and ends with courage,
we can discern a family group of spiritual attitudes or
feelings. which belong more to the philosophic than to
the religious context.

423

In Verse 5, however, which again starts with enumerating
global spiritual sentiments such as the attitude of non-
hurting and ends with the dual factors of fame and obloquy
treated together, we have a series which can be said to be
more religious than philosophic.

The whole list, however, may, be said to refer to bhavah
(moods or attitudes) by which the spirit of man is capable
of representing the Absolute in himself or as expressed
overtly.

A comparison of the series contained in these two verses
come with that in vii, 4, where, besides the elemental factors
in creation, mind, reason and egoism were included, calls
for some clarification.

In the earlier chapter the enumeration was based on the
concept of action viewed phenomenally. The inclusion of
mind, reason and egoism there was because these also were
subject to phenomenal fluctuations as they pertained to the
lower and not to the higher nature of the Absolute.
Here, however, the basic concept for the enumeration of
factors is bhavah (distinct attitudes or expressions). Nature
exists by necessity but the person established in the
Absolute gives expression to certain values through his
dispositions, attitudes or behaviour. It was with a view to
explaining the Absolute that the earlier chapter enumerated
the eightfold factors. In the present chapter, however, the
need for such an explanation has been accomplished. The
enumeration here refers to the various expressions, attitudes
or actions which naturally flow out from that neutral point
which marks the source or the Absolute in a man who
understands it philosophically.

We shall see how a further degree of expression is reached
in a later chapter where it is not expressions, but a
vision of the Absolute in so far as such is possible, is
attempted. While the treatment in chapter vii may be said
to be negative, here it is stated in distinctly positive terms.
In the next chapter the positive character becomes
accentuated to such a degree that it makes the description of
the Absolute so complete and vivid that some writers have
taken objection to it as being of the nature of a crude
theophany.

Further chapters mark the same process of positive realism
in style and treatment, till we touch actual problems such as
practical ethics, diet, and social organization once again.

424

6
maharshayah sapta purve
chatvaro manavas tatha
madbhava manasa jata
yesham loka imah prajah

The seven great sages of old, as also the four law-
givers (manus) are born from My own process of
becoming and mind, and from these all progeny in
the world.

 

The rishis (sages) and the manus (lawgivers) belong to two
different and divergent developments in spiritual traditions.
At the source of the mystical and contemplative tradition
we must place the rishis (sages, seers or bards) who were
people cut away from society living their own lives free
from social obligation and sometimes transgressing the
rules of society. They were individualists.

The other order referred to who are named here as manus
(lawgivers, thoughtful men) were persons who were
socially and legalistically minded. They laid down the
codes for the government of people who belonged to a
certain group. But during the long course of history it
sometimes happened that what was laid down by the rule-
maker had to be drastically revised in the light of changed
circumstances. The intervening period between one manu
(lawgiver) and another has been named manvantara
(period of a manu) of which fourteen constitute a "day of
Brahma", and of which the present is said to be the seventh.
These refer to natural periods of time in which a certain
tradition remains in vogue with a given group of people. If
we think of humanity in different groups or "races", as it
has been sometimes suggested, these manus may all be
considered as belonging to the same period at the very
beginning of the human race, if such a beginning can be
fixed. But it is more probable that these lawgivers
succeeded one another through manvantaras (periods of a
manu). The names of the first seven are given as follows :
Svayambhuva (the author of the Manusmriti or famous
Code of Manu), Svarochisa, Anuttami, Tamasa, Raivata,
Chakshusha and Vaivasvata.

Whether they existed as contemporaries or succeeded one
another is not of much consequence for us here. What is
important to understand is that the two classes mentioned,
the sages and the lawgivers, who in themselves represent
particular spiritual values important to human life, whether

425

collective or individual, have both one common origin in
the neutral Absolute, just in the same manner as the other
spiritual values enumerated above.

Maharshayah sapta purve (the seven great sages of old)
refers to the poet-hermits whose names have been renowned
in the Vedas. The Mahabharata, in which the Bhagavad Gita
appears in Book xii, lists the following : Marichi, Atri,
Angiras, Pulaha, Kratu, Pulastya and Vasishta. Other lists of
seven are given, e.g., Kutsa, Atri, Rebha, Agastya, Kushika,
Vasishta and Vyashva, and sometimes other names are included,
such as Gotama, Bharadvaja, Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Kasyapa,
Daksha, Prachetas, Bhrigu and Narada (see Shataptaha Brahmana,
xxv, 5.2.6, and Harivamsa, 417 ff.).

In this verse the different sets of public or private values
are personalized. They are represented by the lawgiver or
the hermit type of ancient spiritual person. The difference
is similar to that we know to exist between the lawgiver
Confucius and the mystic Lao Tse in China.

When the mind (of vii, 4) begins to function, it tends to
become directed to society because mind is the seat of the
ego and the interaction of ego and ego is the basis of social
life which throws up the social man. But when pure becoming
works out its own nature we find types representing the
natural man who may be even anti-social but still spiritual
according to the best. standards of spirituality known to
the srutis (revealed spiritual texts), though not to the
smritis (remembered codes of behaviour) to which latter
section the lawgivers naturally belong. Thus the sages
and lawgivers represent two branches of the Absolute when
it enters into the domain of human affairs.

 

7
etam vibhutim yogam cha
mamayo vetti tattvatah
so 'vikampena yogena
yujyate na 'tra samsayah

He who understands according to fundamental principles
My unique value together with its unitive balance, by
non-wavering contemplation attains union. In this there
is no room for doubt.

 

The process of becoming which has its origin in the Absolute
as it has been traced so far has two distinct aspects.

426

The first is called vibhuti (unique value) and the second
is called Yoga (neutral union).

These two should be understood as indicated by tattvalah
(according to first principles). In other words these are
fundamental notions of methodology, epistemology or value.
If vibhuti represents a unique value as we have said, such
a value must be the resultant of a unitive or neutral
appraisal of it, in which the opposites are cancelled out.
Any value to which a person could be related in order
that it might affect him in any worthwhile manner must be
thought of not merely as a process in a changing flux of
becoming, but in terms of something that has attained
stability and is thus of significance in human relationships.
In attaining such a stable equilibrium as a value there are
always opposites or counterparts involved. Herein consists
the Yoga or neutral unifications referred to. Yoga is always
a balancing, a neutralization, a cancelling out or
equation of component parts. Thus the process of becoming
and its own stabilization, in order to make worthwhile
values emerge, is the subtle understanding called for in
this verse.

Conversely, it is suggested here that a man capable of
such understanding himself does not fluctuate between
poles of his own personal tendencies. The unitive and
stabilized value which he is capable of appreciating and
with which he has established a bipolar relationship has
the effect of inducing the same stability in his own
personality.

He thus becomes established in a Yoga that never oscillates,
as indicated in the phrase avikampena (non-wavering). Such
a steady relationship established between himself on the one
hand, and a Supreme value on the other, must lead him to
union with the Absolute.

 

8
aham sarvasya prabhavo
mattam sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhavasamanvitah

I am the Source of all ; from Me everything moves
outward; understanding thus, the wise adore Me,
endowed with the intuition of pure becoming.

427

Any implication in the previous verse suggestive of fixed
states is quickly counteracted and corrected here. The
Absolute can be viewed both statically and as an eternal
flux in the process of becoming. Even maya (principle of
negation) has been defined as bhavarupa (of the form of
becoming). The "wise ones" alluded to by the word budhah here
signify those who are capable of a contemplative view of
reality where the factor of time or duration has its place.
All happenings have to be viewed dynamically as a process
of becoming and not merely statically.

A certain sympathetic emotion is implied in contemplation
of the pure process of becoming when it refers to the
Absolute. The intellect is capable of appraising values
only in the form of stills. Those endowed with contemplation
and who are intuitive are capable of entering into
sympathetic understanding of the flux of becoming. It is
the latter class who are referred to as bhavasamanvitih
(endowed with a sympathetic intuition of pure becoming).
In view of the fact that in Verse 2 the reference has been
made to the source from which everything flows out, here
the repetition of the same idea of generation must be to
correct whatever wrong impression might be left from the
previous verse.

 

9
machchitta madgataprana
bodhayantah parasparam
kathayantas cha mam nityam
tushyanti cha ramanti cha

With their relational minds affiliated to Me, their
life-tendencies penetrating in Me, enlightening each
other and ever-conversing about Me, they are content
and rejoice.

 

The proper kind of relation to be established between the
seeker on the one side and the Absolute on the other is
again stated in a clearer form here. While the affiliation
with the Absolute is considered here in as close terms as
possible, almost establishing identity both at the mental or
relational level of the personality and at the vital psycho-
physical level, which latter is implied by the word prana
(which can mean just breath, life or vital tendencies), the
one-pointedness of the surrender thus implied might make
us think that the seeker is completely lost to all that exists
around him, as if absorbed in a mystic trance of exaltation.

428

But the second line of the verse refers to conversation with
others of a similar inclination who might be present around
him.

The normal occupation of a person steeped in the Absolute
is not unconsciousness or abnormality of any kind, but a
normal state in which he not only teaches others but is taught
by others, while the mutual exchange of wisdom gives both
parties the characteristic joy which comes from interplay of
teaching and learning. They are both content and positively
happy in this normal kind of life.

Too often we read of trances and other abnormal states
as evidence of spirituality in mystical or yogic literature.
Symptoms of blood pressure, of depression or exaltation,
not to speak of childish forms of emotionalism, all pass as
expressions of the contemplative life.

The Gita here presents a sober picture which suffers from
no exaggerations. God-consciousness is a healthy and normal
state as portrayed here. This does not mean, however, that
abnormal states do not have any element of spirituality at
all.

The spirit in which this verse is written is not different
from xi, 34 and xviii, 65, whose significance in the Gita we
have sufficiently emphasized.

 

10
tesham satalayuktanam
bhajatam pritipurvakam
dadami buddhiyogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

To such established in unbroken union (with) affectionate
adoration, I grant that kind of unitive understanding by
which they attain to Me.

 

The result or reward of this dedication is not anything of the
order of a siddhi (spiritual attainment) as usually mentioned
in books on Yoga, including such respectable treatises as
Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras". This and the next verse refer to
an award which might appear too simple or plain. It is of the
order of Self-realization or what is here called buddhi-yoga
(unitive understanding).

This is a special phrase which runs throughout the Gita
and is employed and extolled as early as ii, 49, where it is
contrasted with mere karma (action, ritual, works) which is
condemned there as very inferior. In vi, 43 the term again

429

appears, where it is employed in a more technical sense,
suggesting that one fallen from Yoga re-establishes a link
with it through the medium of intelligence or reason.
Here in this verse we find the expression used, it would
seem, with the same intended precision. The same expression
is used in xviii, 57 in summing up the whole teaching,
which is sufficient support for its importance as a
significant phrase. Moreover in x, 4 we find buddhi
(reason) occupying premier place among the unique values
whose source is the Absolute. The gift of intelligence or
reason is the greatest which God could confer on man,
according to the teaching of the Gita.

Attaining the Absolute is the other goal or reward referred
to. This itself should be understood in the same light of
Self-realization suggested in the next verse. We could even
change the idiom and say "attaining to peace", which would
bring together three expressions which would have synonymous
significance, as they have always been recognized to be so
in the language of Vedanta, where Ananda, Atma and Brahman
(joy, Self, Absolute) signify the same.

 

11
tesham eva 'nukampartham
aham ajnanajam tamah
nasayamy atmabhavastho
jnanadipena bhasvata

Specifically because of compassion for them I, abiding
as what has become the Self, destroy the ignorance born
of darkness by the shining lamp of wisdom.

 

It is possible to attain to the Absolute by ascending to
its status through worship, meditation or otherwise by the
process of introspection, by which one may be said to sink
into one's own true Self.

Wisdom is the motive force in these methods. Instead of
a reference to worshipping the Absolute; God or the
Absolute is said here to take pity on the seeker of wisdom
and identify himself with the Self of the seeker and so
dispel the darkness of the seeker. These two - worship on
the part of the seeker, and pity on the part of the Supreme
- are complementary processes and when put together amount
to the same state of unity. In the latter case, it is the
Absolute that influences the Self of the seeker. The bounty
of the Absolute

430

is the motive behind such an influence. Thus the reciprocity
between Verses 10 and 11 is perfect. God loves man as much
as man loves God and identity results.

The comparison of wisdom to a bright light is a favourite
simile in Vedanta. Between light and darkness there seems
to be opposition; but in reality it is light alone without
duality which is the valid factor. Though at first not
logically convincing, this statement becomes dialectically
valid, because light alone can represent reality and not
darkness, which is merely negation and therefore non-
existent.

For this reason the analogy of a lamp has become a favourite
one in Vedanta, where the method is essentially dialectical,
as we have shown many times already. The Absolute is
sometimes called the "Light of lights", as stated definitely
in xiii, 17. Of all analogies that of light seems to clarify
the nature of wisdom and this has been recognized by Plato
and other philosophers, and teachers such as Jesus Christ,
all over the world.

The term atmabhavasthah (abiding as what has become the Self)
is capable of being interpreted in such a way that the Self
implied here represents the Absolute, or as referring to the
Self of the seeker. Both ways give acceptable meanings in
principle, but as a complement to Verse 10, and as consistent
with the general context here, it is the individual Self of
the seeker into which the Absolute transforms itself because
of compassion.

 

12
Arjuna uvacha
param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
purusham sasvatam divyam
ididevam ajam vibhum

13
ahus tvam rishayah sarve
devarshir naradas tatha
asito devalo vyasah
svayam chai 'va bravishi me

Arjuna said:
You as being the supreme Absolute, the supreme Abode, the
supreme Purifier, the eternal divine Person, primal
Divinity, the Unborn, the All-pervading -

all the sages say this of You, the divine sage
Narada, so too Asita, Devala, Vyasa, and You
yourself confirm it to me.

431

Verse 12 opens a section of seven verses which is necessary
for marking out two sets of vibhutis (unique or perfected
values) which it would be wrong on any account to confuse.
These values, when grasped in most general terms, cover
all perfected stages or states in the process of becoming
which we are capable of conceiving, whether intuitively
or objectively.

Objective manifestations of the Absolute have a much lower
status because only a fraction of the potency of the
Absolute principle is said to be necessary to sustain them,
as stated in the last verse of this chapter.

So far we have covered those aspects of becoming which
fall within the scope of intuition rather than mere
objectivity.

The transition into the other series of values or perfections
calls for the literary device of Arjuna's accepting and
questioning interlude.

Arjuna in the first instance accepts the supremacy of the
Absolute, above the Vedic gods and above even the non-
Vedic spirituality of India, both of which belong to his
natural heritage.

When Arjuna in Verse 15 says that the Absolute knows itself
best, not from outside, but known as it were from inside
the Absolute itself, he gives recognition to the fact that the
intuitive method is what reveals the Absolute fully. But still
he requests guidance in the recognition of the touch of the
Absolute, wherever it occurs in the manifested world. Thus
the way is prepared for the last section where unique
perfections or values or specific expressions of the Absolute
are enumerated, an appendix as it were to the intuitive
approach to wisdom.

It takes two sides to make a statement of truth complete,
especially in a dialogue of this kind. It must be stated by one
who knows it and understood by the hearer who is capable of
grasping it. If there is such a recognition on the part of the
hearer, the case for the verity stated may be said to be fully
accomplished.

In the three verses that follow, Arjuna gives full credit to,
and accepts, the teaching of Krishna. He is no longer a
doubting questioner full of mistrust. His conversion in
principle to the

432

absolutist standpoint is complete. But there are matters of
applied wisdom on which he still needs clarification.
The full character of the Absolute with all its implications
is referred to in sufficiently familiar terms here. As the
central reality of which the Gita treats is the Absolute, such
a description of the particularized aspects of the Absolute
can only heighten the understanding of life in the light of
the Absolute.

In the list of authorities mentioned here, not only the
generality of sages are cited, but particular reference to
certain of them. Narada is singled out as a devarshi (sage
among gods). He is one who interprets Vedic wisdom to
those who belong to the non-Vedic context, and vice-versa.
He is pictured in Puranas (sacred legends) as descending
with his favourite vina (lute) from the domain of the gods
to spy on mortals and, like the Greek Hermes, to carry tales
about them again to the denizens on high. Thus he has
gained for himself the name of kalahapriya (quarrel-
making meddler). He is, everywhere used as a literary
device for purposes of revaluation of wisdom. His authority
is therefore valuable here to Arjuna who represents in
himself both the streams of wisdom.

Asita (the Dark One) was the son of the old Rik Veda
sage and poet Kasyapa, and Devala was the son of Asita (or
sometimes Asita and Devala are joined together as the name
of a son of Kasyapa.) The name "Asita" has its own
significance, since it means literally "not white", i.e. of
non-Vedic appearance. This, coupled with Vyasa who was also
"black" or "dark", and who is also mentioned in this verse,
has its own significance in the wisdom dialectics. These
sages must be imagined to occupy strategic positions;
Vyasa being quite patently the most central of revaluators
or "arrangers" in the whole field of Indian spirituality,
beginning from the Mahabharata to the Brahma Sutras and
the father of Vedanta.

The crowning conviction for Arjuna in regard to Krishna's
supreme status, however, comes from Krishna himself who
is his immediate Guru and who has himself stated this
verity about the Absolute in reference to himself earlier
in this chapter and elsewhere. The validity of this testimony
is, therefore, complete all round as required by the sastras
(text-books). Thus the acceptance by Arjuna of the claims
of Krishna becomes natural, as stated in the next verse.

433

14
sarvam tad ritam manye
yan mim vadasi kesava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktim
vidur deva na danavah

I believe that all this that You say is valid, 0 Kesava
(Krishna); neither the divinities nor the demons, 0 Lord,
know Your unique nature.

 

Although other authorities have been cited, Arjuna seems
to rely wholly on evidence that is centred in Krishna himself
as representing the Absolute, for he says that even the
divinities and their counterparts the danavah (Titans, i.e.
those who opposed the Vedic divinities), can never understand
the unique individual character belonging to the Absolute
as such - gods and their titan opponents have only a relativist
or tribal status.

The expression vyakti (individuation) refers to this individual
character more than to mere manifestation. This becomes clear
from the next verse, which points out that the best evidence
of the Absolute can only be from the standpoint of the Absolute
itself. All relativist approaches are different photographs
taken from different angles only, never capable of giving the
complete picture, as Bergson ably explains in his "Introduction
to Metaphysics".

Public verification is discarded in favour of a purer approach
to the Absolute through one's own consciousness. The devas
(Vedic gods) and the danavas (titan opponents of the Vedic
gods) can only get partial views of reality.

Though the danavas (Titans) are said to be inferior to the
devas (Vedic gods) in the matter of knowing the Absolute,
both have here a status of equality.

The word ritam (valid) does not mean exactly the same as
satyam (true), which latter is used when there is positive
conviction by the use of intelligence. Arjuna's present state
is one of belief rather than conviction.

 

15
svayam evi 'tmana 'tmanam
vettha tvam purushottama
bhutabhavana bhatesa
devadeva jagatpate

You Yourself indeed know Yourself by Yourself, most high
Godhead, presiding Principle of elemental expression and
of becoming, Light of shining ones, the Lord of the universe.

434

The best way to wisdom is through intuition, which is an
approach different from objective knowledge. The way of
intuition is to identify oneself with the object or, in other
words, to abolish, as far as possible, subjective and objective
prejudices which hide the true nature of the thing as viewed
from its own inside. The present verse supports the view that
the Absolute is best known to the Absolute by its own norms
and standards. Outside norms only measure as if by guesswork,
indirectly at best, through symbolic language or inference.
Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the meaning are
all here conceived as belonging to one normative Principle,
the Self, which is a measure of all things.

The methodological requirement of abolishing the natural tri-
basic (triputi in Vedanta terminology) tendency in
cognition is here openly discarded, and though the status
of the Absolute is still spoken of as a divinity or a
theological entity of some kind, we find it raised beyond
all such suspicions of theology, or above what is merely
theistic.

This is suggested by each of the series of epithets:
purushottama (most high Godhead), bhutabhavana bhutesa
(presiding Principle of elemental expression and of
becoming), devadeva (God of divinities or Light of shining
ones, i.e. Light of lights), jagatpate (Lord of the universe).
The latter perhaps has a theistic flavour in the usual sense,
but is still capable of being understood in the light of pure
philosophy. Inserted, as the Gita is, in the Puranic context of
the Mahabharata, the author adopts a style which would apply
both to theology and philosophy at once.

 

16
vaktum arhasy aseshena
divya hy atmavibhutayah
yabhir vibhutibhir lokan
imams tvam vyapya tishthasi

Be pleased to tell me without omission of the divine
perfections of Your own Self by which specific expressions
You pervade these worlds, while remaining (apart)

435

In spite of certain indications given about perfections as
applied to the Absolute earlier in this chapter, here we find
Arjuna insistent on, hearing from Krishna of whatever
aspects have not been covered so far in the earlier
enumeration. This is what justifies the expression aseshena
(without remainder) by Arjuna.

In Verse 18 the eagerness of Arjuna is further underlined
and in Krishna's reply which begins with the expression
hanta Alas! well, now!) there seem to be unwillingness or
hesitation to enumerate his flimsy glories as if they were of
little importance philosophically. But Arjuna takes care, in 
Verse 17, to give his reason for asking the question in very
explicit terms. It is for fuller guidance in visualizing or
conceiving the Absolute properly. Krishna accordingly
gives Arjuna a sufficient number of instances for his
guidance.

The word tishthasi (You remain) is reminiscent of the word
sthito (I stand) in Verse 42, which is derived from the
same root. The Absolute exists without being tainted by its
own manifestations in the worlds. It is not a mechanistic
relationship in which the converse of a proposition holds
good, but one in which the converse is not true. Existence
reveals God, but God is not to be identified with existence
(see Taittiriya Upanishad, ii, 6 and Gita vii, 12).

 

17
katham vidyam aham yogima
tvam sada parichintavan
keshu-keshu cha bhaveshu chintyo 'si
bhagavan maya

How shall I, constantly meditating on You, know You,
0 Mystic (yogi); in what particular expressions,
0 blessed One, are You to be cognized by me?

 

The reference to Krishna as a yogi in preference to all
other epithets like bhagavan (blessed One) here is
significant. As we have explained under Verse 7, vibhuti
(unique perfection or value) and Yoga here have a subtle
interconnection. It is in reference to the power of Yoga
which comes near to that of maya (principle of negation)
but devoid of any derogatory stigma, that the word Yoga
is often applied. The yogi is sometimes even compared to
a magician, and

436

an mixing up of values to produce entities which are
desirable or attractive is a result of the magic of yoga.
It has its origin in the Absolute. Contemplative values
emerge from the vague matrix of the Absolute as highlights
from the general background of a painting and, when they are
sufficiently respectable as properly belonging to the mystical
context, the author of such manifestations, i.e., the Absolute,
could legitimately be called a yogi. This is exactly the
meaning of the word here.

Having spoken of the Absolute as knowing Himself best,
the reference to him as a Divine Yogi here is but one degree
removed in favour of the actual enumeration of perfection
in the visible world which we are about to enter upon. The
yogi who can work magic and the effect that is magical
both belong to the Absolute.

It is suggested that in meditating on such a yogic aspect,
the seeker himself would be better guided in the path of the
Absolute. Arjuna as a seeker wants to be guided by visible
perfections of the Absolute recognizable here and now.
The expression tvam sada parichintayan (constantly meditating
on you) would seem at first sight to be a superfluous
condition when the perfections to be enumerated belong to,
a manifested world. But it should be noted that it is not
objective values alone that are referred to below. They
are values which are revealed only to the eye of a person
who has at least entered into a mood of recognition of higher
values. The values do not by themselves automatically
impress the mind of the seeker. Hence the necessity of being
always in a meditative mood. In the reference to the
gambling of the gambler for example, the implied value is
not evident on the surface, nor is the grandeur of the
Himalaya as a value, to take but two examples from the
great number of cases given.

 

18
vistarena 'tmano yogam
vibhutim cha janardana
bhuyah kathaya triptir hi
srinvato ni 'sti me 'mritam

Tell me, again in detail, 0 Janardana (Krishna), of
your balanced perfections and specific expressions,
for I am never satiated by hearing your words of'
ambrosial immortality.

 

437

The request is repeated with the additional reference not only
to desire for guidance, but in the name of sheer enjoyment
itself The "cognition" desired in the first instance is here
supported by sheer affection for the wisdom, which, taken
together with "conation" already covered in Chapter ix,
fulfils all the psychological prerequisites for a wholehearted
affiliation to wisdom, even in its most specific aspects.

Muna refers to the wisdom as the ambrosia that gives
immortality and adds further that he would never be satiated.
The seeker for the Absolute has been compared elsewhere to
a bee sipping nectar in the heart of a lotus. The more it sips,
the more the taste for wisdom increases, and because the
Absolute represents eternal value, there is no term that could
be set for its satisfaction.

Vibhuti (unique value, perfection) and Yoga (neutral union)
are here alluded to again. Instead of particularized
expressions which are going to be enumerated presently, this
more general reference is to conform to the theme of the
chapter as a whole by way of concluding this section, where
Arjuna's conversion to the standpoint of Krishna is completed.
The mutual adoption is wholehearted and strictly bipolar with
no misgivings or mistrust.

 

19
Sribhagavan uvacha
hanta te kathayishyami
divya hy atmavibhutayah
pradhanyatah kurusreshtha
na 'sty anto vistarasya me

Krishna said:
Ah ! I shall recount to you the (bright) glorious values that
pertain to Myself, (graded) according to their importance,
0 Best of the Kurus (Arjuna), for there is no end to the
elaboration of items pertaining to Me.

 

The section dealing with the long enumeration of specific,
unique or glorious values which emerge to view in our life as
it is actually lived, to which reference was made in the
introduction to this chapter, begins here. As in the case of
Hamlet's ghost when it was unwillingly compelled to speak

438

about itself, we find a characteristic interjection here,
hanta (ah !) which can mean "alack "or "alas ". The world
of the spirit has a certain hesitation or unwillingness to
become the subject of overt commonplace discussion. One
could even say that God himself likes to remain unseen,
untainted by the vulgar look of a humanity which belongs
to the market-place. It is at the insistent request of
Arjuna that a concession is made here. When God makes his
appearance to the common human eye it degenerates into a
theophany which theologians have quite rightly condemned.
This charge may at first sight appear to apply to the
enumeration in this chapter and more definitely to the next
chapter, where Arjuna has the vision of God. But those who
level these charges forget one important difference, which is
that it is not a mere theistic God which is the subject of
discussion in the Gita at all, as we have many times pointed
out, but a far higher subject. The difference will be
expressly brought out in xv, 17 and 18.

The unique values are further qualified as being divya
(divine). If theism is excluded how - can this epithet be
justified ? This would be a natural question. But if we look
at the derivation we find it is light or brightness which is
referred to, as in viii, 26. The Absolute, has its bright
aspects. Aditya, which is named first in Verse 21, has
brightness as its expression, and although some of the other
items may not have brightness explicitly as in this case, the
principle of brightness or at least positiveness, is implied
in all these enumerated values.

The term pradhanyatah (according to their importance) shows
that the list is graded, though by no means exhaustive, as
implied in the term vistarasya (to the elaboration of items)
that pertain to the Absolute. This has to be read side by side
with the two concluding verses where the secondary character
intended here for enumerated items is further underlined.

 

20
aham atma gudakesa
sarva bhutasaya sthitah
aham adis cha madhyam cha
bhutanam anta eva cha

I am the soul, 0 Gudakesa (Arjuna), seated in the
heart of all beings; and I am the beginning, and the
middle and even the end of beings.

439

In keeping with the treatment throughout the Gita, where
cosmology and psychology are dealt with side by side, here
the first and most important item of the glory and unique
value of the Absolute is stated in terms of the Self, before
passing on to items that have more of a cosmological
significance, To treat cosmology and psychology together is
one of the peculiarities of contemplative epistemology, as
we have already seen, in vii, 4, where the eightfold division
of the Absolute includes earth at one end and the "I" sense
at the other end.

Here, however, even the vestige of duality which persisted
in Chapter vii as between the lower and the higher Self is
further abolished.

Earlier in the present chapter there is a list of qualities or
virtues which are said to issue from the Absolute where also
duality is present between those virtues which depend upon
intelligence and others that depend upon personal attitudes.
In the present verse it is neither nature nor virtue which
is dealt with, but a series of values conceived more
unitively, and graded according to an epistemological
principle in which the Self as an overt entity is given a
primary place. Thus, the idea of the Self here approaches as
near as could possibly be to the concept of a soul, understood
as an entity rather than as being identical with the Absolute
or Brahman. Otherwise it could not be spoken of as being
seated in the heart of all beings.

Further, the reference to a beginning, middle and end, as
applied to a purer concept of the Self would become irrelevant
because the Absolute Self is beyond time. The reference to
relative time here, however, is consistent with what has been
said in Verse 2, though not with what is implied in Verse 3.
We have already explained how this chapter is on a par with
the last, although the needle here deflects a little towards
the positive appraisal of the Absolute, instead of being only
a little short of the neutral zero in Chapter ix. The norm
or the zero had to be indicated for the appreciation of the
subtle difference in treatment which we have just pointed out.
Hence the justification for Verse 3.

When the Self is seated in the heart it conforms to the
description in Verse 3, but when it is the beginning, middle
and end, it conforms to the more practical or realistic picture
implied in Verse 2. Instead of being merely the source of
beings, as mentioned in Verse 2, here it is also the middle

440

and even the end. The asymmetry inevitable to a realistic
approach is here rectified without losing its positive
character. Time and eternity are here brought together as
closely as possible without compromising the positive note
of the chapter.

 

21
adityanam aham vishnur
jiyotisham ravir amsuman
marichir marutam asmi
nakshatranam aham sasi

Of the Adityas I am Vishnu, of luminaries the radiant Sun;
I am Marichi of the Maruts ; among the stars I am the Moon.

 

The enumeration of cosmological entities representing
absolutist value gives first place to the Adityas. They
represent luminaries pertaining to each month of the year
(especially in the later brahmanas or later Vedic works).
The twelve suns are supposed to shine together at the
destruction of the universe, and Vishnu is the last of the
series. If we now think of Vishnu as representing Absolute
value, we can easily see how the eleven other suns previous
to him in the series are implicit in that very value which is
the finalized one. Vishnu-hood therefore includes and
transcends all luminous values in the context of relative time
or duration. He might thus represent Absolute time and
Absolute glory conceived together. Thus, cosmologically, we
arrive at the Absolute in terms of a supreme value in the
eternal present. The cosmological approach to the Absolute
cannot possibly go any further.

Coming one step down from this pure and comprehensive notion
of luminaries treated in the abstract, we come to the notion
of ravi (the sun) which is a unitary entity among the existing
luminaries, which would represent something unique or special,
a sort of model by itself The difference between other
luminaries and the sun, it is suggested, is not one of mere
degree, but of kind.

From an objective luminary, we come in the next instance to
Marichi, i.e., to an entity representing a mere ray of light.
It is therefore the qualitative aspect of light which gains
prominence. As the word also refers to one of the seven
sages, to the first Manu, to one of the mind-born sons of

441

Brahma, and to Krishna himself, the implication here is that
among the Maruts (which means indifferently "vital breath"
or "shining" or more comprehensively living beings in
general). Marichi itself represents the radiant or shining
principle. The quantitative aspect gives place to the
qualitative, and reveals the Absolute through brightness as
an abstract principle or even presence.

The last example reveals the same underlying method. In
the light of actual objective astronomy, as understood in
modern times, it would be incongruous to say that among
the stars the moon has any superiority or uniqueness; but
considered merely from its relative prominence as we look
at the full moon on a starry night, what is intended here is
unmistakably evident. Sanskrit literature has the familiar
figure of speech in which a beautiful woman surrounded by
her handmaidens is compared to the moon surrounded by
stars. The moon stands out conspicuously in its unique
glory among stars viewed in this way. It is the uniqueness
of the glory that matters here and not factual astronomy.

 

22
vedinam samavedo 'smi
devanam asmi vasavah
indriyanam manas cha 'smi
bhutanam asmi chetana

Of the Vedas I am the Sama-Veda; of the divinities I am
Indra (Vasava); in respect of the senses I am the Mind,
and of life-expressions I am (pure) Intelligence.

 

From the Absolute viewed from a cosmological angle, we turn
again to one in which the approach is more subjective.
The three Vedas represent those branches of learning
which adorn a brahmin who represents a spiritual man. One
versed in the Rig Veda gives importance or primacy to
devas (deities), and one versed in the Yajur Veda gives
primacy to man. The Sama Veda on the other hand, praises
soma (some juicy potent ontological principle) side by side
with the pitris (ancestors). It represents a compromising,
synthetic, middle way in spiritual learning; the passages in it
being drawn from the other two Vedas, and as Sama also
suggests song, or chanting, it represents also an element of
ecstasy. All these mark the unique distinction of the Sama
alongside

442

the other two Vedas. The fourth or Atharvana Veda deals with
black magic and therefore need not figure at all here in
this grouping.

The primacy given to Vasava or Indra, well known as the chief
of gods, cited in the next example, requires no explanation.
The comparison established between the mind and the senses
in the instance which follows might be objected to, as one
that is between different classes or entities, because the
mind is not generally counted as a sense organ. But the
sense organs may he said to inhere or be implied in the mind.
Mind has no being apart from them and itself may be
considered as the focal point where the sensations coming
through the different senses may be said to meet. In such a
revised sense the comparison is quite valid, especially when
we remember that the Absolute always belongs to an order of
its own, though related to its component members.
Chetana (living intelligence) is the finest form of the
expression of life. Life itself is a process of constant
becoming, and when it is not statically viewed, pure
becoming is a notion not far different from pure intelligence.
The difference is subtle and negligible. Life can be equated
with intelligence, when both are understood in the purest
terms; or intelligence may be said to be the cream of life
itself.

 

23
rudranam samkaras cha 'smi
vitteso yaksharakshasam
vasunam pavakas cha 'smi
meruh sikharinam aham

Of the Rudras I am Samkara (Siva) ; of the Yakshas and
the Rakshasas, Vittesa (Lord of Wealth), of the Vasus I am
Pavakah (the purifying elemental fire) and among heights
I am Meru.

 

Here we, have a series which is conceived in very earthy
or ontological terms. The name rudra, suggesting "roaring"
or "howling", can also refer to something of a necessary or
matter-of-fact order in life. The tragic aspect of life, which
Siva represents as a destroyer, need not be thought of as a
value representing imperfection. Adversity itself has its
sweet uses. There are references in the Indian scriptures to
many Rudras who, treated together, may be thought of as

443

representing a form of perfection or auspicious value
derived from the Absolute as suggested by the name samkara
(causing happiness) which is a synonym for Siva.
Yakshas and Rakshasas are said to represent a sort of
cousin class of entities worthy of worship who attend on
Kubera (here called Vittesa) the God of Wealth. To be
wealthy, even in a worldly sense, may be said to be
something unique and even glorious and good. So, in that
category of superiority to which Yakshas and Rakshasas
also belong, the lord of wealth occupies a unique place.
Each notion of the Absolute has to be understood from its
own frame of reference or standpoint. Perfection, goodness
or validity can distinguish entities belonging to classes or
categories which are distinct or apart. Superiority in one
category does not mean superiority in another. Thus,
Kubera or the Lord of Wealth is superior in his own context
and not in the context of devas or divinities, with which
latter group he is not to be compared.

In the hierarchy of beings belonging to Vedism, Yakshas and
Rakshasas do not occupy any laudable position, much less
Kubera, their common chief. His inclusion in the list of
unique values enumerated here must depend not so much on
goodness but rather on some tragic or strong note coming
from urjita (something valid or radical) as in Verse 41.
The norms of Vedic orthodoxy are not strictly adhered to
here.

The Vasus, often spoken of as eight in number, are
elemental divinities suggesting brightness, goodness or
beneficence.

Fire, which is really one of them, is spoken of here as
representing all of them, because it implies the potency
of purification.

Mount Meru has the uniqueness in Puranic cosmology of
being the churning-rod or axis round which the known
universe revolves. Geographically speaking, Meru is
distinguished by its height, as against the Himalaya known
for its massive grandeur. When we take into account the
quality of height of mountains, Meru excels; and thus its
uniqueness is revealed, and that is where its absoluteness
inheres.

444

24
purodhasam cha mukhyam
mam viddhi partha brihaspatim
senaninam aham skandah
sarasam asmi sagarah

Even in the case also) of the household priests, 0 Partha
(Arjuna), know Me the Chief, Brihaspati; of the generals
I am Skandha (the war-god); in respect of lakes I correspond
to the ocean.

 

Brihaspati is a wise teacher of the Vedic gods, and also
a lawgiver. His claims to Vedic orthodoxy are sometimes
questioned although, on the other hand, the authorship of
certain Vedas or passages in the Vedas are sometimes
attributed to him. He is also often referred to as the head
of the rationalism anterior to the Samkhya philosophy. He can
be taken generally. to represent traditional wisdom at its
highest, although himself belonging to a patriarchal or
familial set-up.

The leader of the family priests here, referred to as
Purodhas is a master of ceremonies in household Vedic
ritualism. In such a category Brihaspati occupies a unique
and glorious position. He represents absolutism as far as it
can go in such a relativist framework.

The war-god Skanda represents prowess in the military
context. He stands for a form of positive spirituality which
is not merely a form of impotent piety.

In the lake and ocean reference, we should think of a person
taking a walk through a district of beautiful lakes and,
while he is enjoying their beauty, his eye catches a glimpse
of the ocean which dominates the whole scene. A sense of
wonder marks the difference between the two appreciations.
The object of the author here is to underline this qualitative
difference. By referring to the ocean among lakes quite
abruptly along with other examples in the same verse in
which the values are more personal, it is not against the
philosophy of the Gita to treat of physical entities alongside
spiritual factors such as the ego or the mind.

 

25
maharshinam bhrigur aham
giram asmy ekam aksharam
yajnanam japayajno 'smi
sthavaranam himalayah

Of the great hermit-sages I am Bhrigu; of articulated words
I am the one-syllable (Aum); of sacrifices I am the sacrifice
of silent repetition; of immovables I am the Himalaya.

445

Bhrigu typifies another type of spirituality, conforming to
what could be called the pattern of rishi or hermit. They are
different from priests or even pontiffs; being recluses or
forest-dwellers, related more to the natural than to the
social man. Their life conforms to standards of pure mystical
morality free from the rigid obligatory framework of social
rules. Although the authorship of the Veda is attributed to
them sometimes, as also a patriarchal status of lawgivers,
they are innocent and pure personalities who may be called
originals in the spiritual pattern that each of them
represents.

Many Bhrigus have been referred to in ancient Indian
writing; even a whole race of Bhrigus being sometimes
mentioned. It will suffice for us to understand here that
this type of spiritual person has his absolute counterpart
in a Bhrigu, known generically through the ages associated
with fire or its kindling.

The one syllable referred to in this verse is evidently Aum
and how Aum represents the Absolute has been explained in
the Mandukya Upanishad.

In the matter of repeating holy formulae, how this could
be considered as a form of sacrifice is suggested in iv, 28.
The superiority of silent prayer to loudly uttered formulae
comes from the fact that the former approximates to
contemplation which is subjective and involves no outer
expression. The more outward a prayer or sacrifice is, the
more inferior is its grade in the true contemplative sense.
Loud prayers and elaborate ritual are often attributed in the
Puranas (legends) to rakshasas (fierce demons) like Ravana
or stalwarts like Bhima. One is asked to say one's prayers
in lonely privacy even in Christianity, and only Pharisees
are supposed to make a public display of piety. A life
dedicated to the Absolute should conform to contemplative
requirements rather than to social standards.
The superiority of contemplative sacrifices is also praised
indirectly in iv, 33.

The immobility or stability or radical strength which is
here singled out as the unique or specific quality of the
Himalaya suggests the same subjective attitude implicit in
the other examples. A person who is withdrawn and whose
spirit is attuned to his inmost Self, gains a stability or
steadiness which resembles the immobility of the Himalaya.

446

26
asvatthah sarvavrikshanam
devarshinim cha naradah
gandharvanam chitrarathah
siddhanam kapilo munih

Of trees (I am) Asvattha, and of divine sages, Narada,
of Gandharvas, Chitraratha, (and) of those of psycho-physical
attainments, Kapila the recluse.

Here the unitive principle on which the instances converge
is that of a neutrality between extremes rather than one-sided
glory of any kind.

The Asvattha tree (ficus religiosa) or banyan, has aerial
roots and therefore derives nourishment both from the
ground and, theoretically at least, from the atmosphere.
Although there are more glorious trees, this neutral example
is chosen here because of having its roots as it were in
heaven and its branches in the human world, as more
completely pictured in the sequence of verses at the
beginning of Chapter xv. It is not famed for its utility but
has been valued for its religious associations throughout
the ages in India, and it corresponds in some ways to the
Ygdrassil of Scandinavian mythology.

Narada is a typical go-between for gods and men and his
nickname is "scandal-monger". He is known as a devarshi
(divine seer or sage) but his status as such is open to
question. He is a kind of intermediate product between two
different sets of spiritual values.

As for the gandharvas, they also occupy an intermediate
position between regular heavenly divinities, such as Indra,
and mortals. Chitraratha, as the name indicates, is the
possessor of an ornamental chariot. Gandharvas are custodians
of the soma plant with which they engaged themselves in
healing the devas (divinities), in which matter they became
rivals to the latter, Indra himself taking away the soma
medicine by force. From all this we gather that the gandharvas
belong to the mortal world as much as to the heavenly, and
therefore represent a mysterious paradoxical value through
their chief, here named Chitraratha.

The eight siddhis (psycho-physical attainments) are not
divine qualities, but merely perfections attainable from the
mundane side. Lightness of body, for example, does

447

not imply any supernatural quality, but can be understood
merely as a psycho-physical attainment within the reach of
man. The siddhas are those who possess such attainments,
and are said to inhabit alternately the higher and lower
altitudes of the Himalaya.

Kapila, the reputed founder of the Samkhya (rationalist)
system, being of the heterodox school, rightly represents the
group, especially as the siddhis (psycho-physical attainments)
mentioned in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras have, in the Samkhya of
Kapila, a natural counterpart. Rationalism and yogic
attainments meet in the person of Kapila and he thus
represents a unique spiritual value belonging to a certain
well-known context which is that of munis (recluses).

 

27
uchchaihsravasam asvanam
viddhi mam amritodbhavam
airavatam gajendranam
naranam cha naradhipam

Know Me among horses to be Uchchaihsravas, born of the
ambrosia of immortality; of noble elephants, Airavata,
and of men, the King.

 

From examples suggesting higher hypostatic values we come
now to some belonging to the side of ordinary creation,
such as the horse and the elephant.

The equestrian quality in a horse and the elephantine
quality in an elephant are the aspects in which their own
specific reality remains fixed. It is the specific quality
which always contains the virtue or value.

Taking the example of Uchchaihsravas, the high-eared and
neighing, or in other words, very sensitive horse of Indra
which was obtained on the churning of the ocean of milk, the
author puts his finger on one important item of unique
though utilitarian value which comes within the range of
human life.

The milk ocean is symbolic of the, expansive world of values
belonging to the human environment. Churning throws out
specific values from the general matrix of values.
This general matrix is here referred to as the ambrosia of
immortality, because eternal values are to be kept in mind
when we deal with contemplation of the Absolute.

448

This horse then is not only a prototype of all horses but is
supposed to excel all others and in this way is related to the
unique value of the Absolute which, by itself, cannot be
conceived by human thought in any definite form.
The case of the elephant is a parallel instance. It is also
born from the Ocean of Milk or Values.

The example of a king among men is also very striking in
that it serves to bring into relief the distinction which in
principle exists between just one among many and that
unique value which gives to the individual a totally different
status. A king might resemble a soldier in details of dress
and appearance, but there is a qualitative difference in their
status which is important to recognize. To mistake a king for
an ordinary soldier may sometimes have disastrous consequences.
Thus the unique value of a king among men is brought into
relief through this example.

 

28
ayudhanam aham vajram
dhenunam asmi kamadhuk
prajanas cha 'smi kandarpah
sarpanam asmi vasukih

Of weapons I am the thunderbolt; of cows I am the
milk-yielder of all desires; of progenitors I am the
god of erotics; of serpents I am Vasuki (their chief).

 

The distinct qualities belonging to weapons or to entities
affecting human life adversely or favourably in a more
ordinary sense are enumerated here.

The thunderbolt of Indra is the fiercest of weapons and the
poison of the king of serpents can have ominous significance.
They thus enter into the world of spiritual values in
different ways.

The Cow of Plenty of Indian mythology occupies an intermediate
position covering all and sundry values comprising both
necessity and luxury.

Man must live and multiply, and the principle of fecundity
involved here is a value which is hypostatized in the chief
of progenitors as also found in Indian mythology.
Vasuki, as the king of serpents, represents a negative value
gaining its status through potency rather than fecundity.
Potency is one of the important component parts of what is
generally understood as spiritual and therefore cannot be
omitted.

449

29
anantas cha 'smi naganam
varuno yadasam aham
pitrinam aryama cha 'smi
yamah samyamatam aham

And I am Ananta of Nagas; I am Varuna of the denizens of
the deep; and Aryama of the ancestors: I am Yama of
controllers.

 

The entities included here suggest on the one hand time
or eternity. "Ananta", which means "endlessness", is the snake
of Vishnu. Here it is the negative, dark, or existential
aspects of eternity that are suggested by these various
entities. They may be looked upon as representing human
values belonging to the background of the personality,
where retrospection and the consequent element of regret
are also involved. Varuna, for example, is regarded
sometimes as the counterpart of Mitra, the former having to
do with darkness and the latter with the light of day.

The nagas, or cobras with human faces, in mythology,
definitely belong to the nether world and it is safe to
conjecture that they belong to some form of outmoded or
overcovered spiritual tradition. What is too negative or
retrospective when we think of such semi-human cobras is
balanced or corrected when we think of Ananta, where Time
is treated without asymmetry as the eternal present, a
notion in keeping with the absolutist outlook.

With Varuna the presiding deity of the sea and the watery
element in general, the negative character to which we have
referred is further confirmed, as water has more inertia
implied in it than fire. Varuna is much feared, as evident
from Vedic prayers, because he is supposed to know all the
faults of his worshippers, even the winking of an eye. He is
not just some god high above the world, but part and parcel
of the laws of existence which regulate human life here and
now.

Aryama as the chief of the ancestors is more connected
with vaishyas (farmer-merchants) and women rather than with
the highest class. Pure or higher values are not implied in
such an entity. Ancestor worship has its retrospective lag

450

which is intended here to be corrected or balanced by the
reference to Aryama, who perhaps represents the highest or
furthermost point to which negative ancestor worship could
be lifted.

Yama is always located in the south, and vis-a-vis the
north has always occupied a place corresponding to Hades.
If heaven is in the Himalaya, Hades may be said to be at
the pointed toe of South India. This does not, however, mean
that Yama has not been given an important place. In fact,
in Vedanta, Yama sometimes (in Katha Upanishad for instance)
occupies the place of a guru. He represents the first man,
with his sister Yami the first woman. His name suggests
strict control and as Dharma-Raja he is in charge of natural
or spiritual laws and judgments bearing on justice. The
stern or inexorable character of Yama, like retribution,
is a negative factor, in keeping with the other values
alluded to above.

 

30
prahladas cha 'smi daityanam
kalah kalayatam aham
mriganam cha mrigendro 'ham
vainateyas cha pakshinam

And I am Prahlada of the Daityas; among bases of
measurement I am time; and of beasts I am the lord of
beasts (the lion); and Vainateya of birds.

 

The Daityas have always been considered enemies of the
Vedic gods. They also inhabit the nether world. At a time
when the notion of Vishnu as representing the Absolute
came into vogue, one of the Daityas called Prahlada caught
on to the new idea, while his father Hiranyakashipu
opposed him on this point. Vishnu himself is said to have
given recognition to Prahlada by making him a chief
among Daityas. As one capable of appreciating absolutism,
though still belonging to a non-Vedic context, Prahlada
attains that unique value justifying his inclusion in the
list here.

Time which consists of moments is included in the abstract
notion of pure time which is here called kala. Each unitive
moment is included in the general notion. It is with these
time-units that all worthwhile measurements as in
astronomy are made possible. Thus pure time represents
the Absolute in relation to moments, based on which
calculations are possible.

451

There are many animals in the forest, but the lion or the
tiger, and especially the lion, has a striking, unmistakable
supremacy which overshadows all the others. In the sense
of thus dominating everything else of the same kind, the
lion is here held up as an example.

Vainateya is a mysterious bird often referred to as the
brother of the dawn because of its glory. The fabled
phoenix is a bird which is self-immolated to be born again
at once and represents the eternal present. Some such idea is
likely to be implied in Vainateya, which by lineage is also
related to Garuda (Vinata) the hypostatic bird-vehicle of
Vishnu. Birds themselves, with their bright plumage and
aerial flight in the glory of the bright sky, are symbols of
the spirit of man seeking freedom, and it is therefore but
apt that the mystery bird Vainateya should be given here a
prime place as an absolutist value.

 

31
pavanah pavatam asmi
ramah sastrabhritam
aham jhashanam makaras
cha 'smi srotasam asmi jahnavi

Of purifiers I am the wind; I am Rama of bowmen; of fishes
I am the makara; of streams I am the Ganges.

 

Fire which had the name of purifier in Verse 3 of this
chapter is not the only purifier. The wind is expressly
spoken of as such here. We know that water also cleanses
The particular sense in which the wind is spoken of as a
purifier here can be got from the fact, that the wind is an
ally of fire (agni) which is a supreme purifier. In helping fire
to purify, a chance or selective influence is exerted by the
wind.

It assists the fire to burn away dross and thus let purer
values remain. It can thus be thought of as the wind of
occasionalism or chance. The sifting or selection of inherent
or lasting values may be regarded as belonging to the
chance-like gusts of the wind.

As a bowman, Rama excels all others, not only because of
correct marksmanship, but because of the absolutist
character of the spiritual value he represents in his own
personality. In the Ramayana every weapon of Ravana is
met by something superior on the part of Rama. Weapons
here represent spiritual values in the process of revaluation.
The values that

452

Ravana is capable of representing are finally superseded by
the weapon of all weapons known as Rama-bana which is
Absolute in its character. It must be in this additional sense
that Rama may be said to be unique as an archer.
The makara is a semi-mythological "fish" perhaps resembling the
Gangetic cetacean gavialis gangeticus. It is notorious for
its voracity, and just as the lion dominates the forest, so
this makara dominates life in the waters. Hence the place given
to it here.

The holiness of the Ganges is well known. It is believed
that a dip in its waters has the power of absolving one from
all sin. In another symbolic sense also the status of the
Ganges becomes unique in that it represents the flow of
beneficent values originating from the head of Siva. It is
thus a perennial value flowing through time for the benefit
of man.

 

32
sarganam adir antas cha
madhyam chai 'va'ham arjuna
adhyatmavidya vidvanam
vadah pravadatam aham

(In the structure) of cantos (or chapters) I am the beginning,
end and also the middle, 0 Arjuna; of the sciences (I am) the
Science of the Self; I am the dialectic of pre-eminent
dialecticians.

 

The items here belong to the category of speech,literature,
or branches of wisdom. It is a well-known rule in
rhetoric or composition that in a paragraph or section of a
book, the most important or conspicuous positions are the
beginning, end and middle. It is true that a cosmological
interpretation can be given to the word sarga, but in view
of the fact that such a reference has already been covered
in Verse 20, and also considering the unity of this verse,
it is more likely that the rhetorical interpretation is
intended.

In any work the essential content is likely to be mentioned
at the, beginning, middle or end. The structure of the Gita
itself bears this out.

Especially when understood as Self-knowledge, the Vedanta
is often referred to as the crowning jewel of wisdom, or
as the basis of all knowledge. As it deals with the Absolute
itself this description is justified. The Upanishads refer
to that kind of knowledge by knowing which, everything here
is known, where

453

the unitive grandeur of Upanishadic Self-knowledge is
extolled. Such passages make the meaning here quite clear.
When two people discuss, there is an interplay of dialectic
implied in the situation, especially when such discussion enters
into very subtle or specific matters of spiritual value. This
implied dialectic is here called vada which represents the
neutral Absolute, standing as it were between two differing
points of view in theses cleverly sustained by adepts in the
dialectic art. The prefix pra being held to indicate utkarsha
(special glory) and khyati (fame), supports the meaning here of
a specially gifted dialectician. If this kind of subtle dialectic
is not meant here, vada can just mean reasonable or normal
argument for finding the truth as against jalpa (overbearing
wrangling) and vitanda (idle carping) as Sankara suggests. But,
in our opinion, dialectic is consistent with the subject-matter
of the Gita, as we have many times said.

 

33
akshardnam akiiro 'smi
dvandvah samasikasya cha
aham evd 'kshayah kalo
dhata 'ham visvatomukhah

Among syllabic letters I am the A and of compounds I am the
paired-compound; I am also unexpended Time; I am the
Maintainer, universally facing.

 

The vowel A here called akara is implied in every other
sound of the syllabaries (as in Sanskrit and other Indian
languages) whether vowel or consonant. Even in vowels that
sound different, the basic sound A is merely modified by
the position of the speech organs. This idea is found also
in the Tamil Tiru-Kural. As the common basis of all sounds
the unique value of A among all syllables is quite evident.
There are many ways by which words are compounded with
others. The various types are called samasas. Of the
component parts of most of them, one is treated as more
important than the other. But in the particular compound
known as the dvandva (paired-compound) both components
are given equal status. This reference is very apt and
supports the contention put forward here that the author
thinks in terms of dialectic rather than, as often thought,
of a reasoning leading to monism. The Absolute cannot be
conceived of except through the method of neutralizing or
cancelling-out of counterparts.

454

The "here" and the "hereafter", the "universal" and the
"particular", the "one" and the "many", have all to be treated
unitively, after being conceived as a pair. That mysterious
hyphen which joins the counterparts into a central or
Absolute value, which is often but a mere wonder, is the
nearest approach to the understanding of the Absolute which
itself is beyond the reach of mind and work.

The reference to kala (pure Time), which is unexpended And
therefore pure, represents the same subtle value. This value
belongs to the domain of intuition in the process of pure
becoming, it has to be complemented by its own counterpart
which is suggested by the word dhatah (maintainer) in the next
item that follows. If a certain value in life is derived from
its relation to Time as by slow maturation, there are others
which belong to Space. These may be called horizontal values,
while those related to Time (in this sense) may be called
vertical. The reference to Time as a unique value here, side
by side with "gift" coming from every side calls for some
philosophical explanation.

The world as we see it is established in space, although by
intuition we can understand it also as a flux in pure time or
becoming. But even as a flux we are able to be related to it in
a continued or sustained manner. The world established in space
has something stable about it which, though not static, relates
human life to various human values, some ordinary and some
superior. But both these sets of values, horizontal and vertical,
should be thought of as belonging to the contemplative order. The
spatial or horizontal values may be spoken of as gifts coming
from the hands of the original Creator, resulting from the relation
which a person is capable of having between himself and the
value coming to him from the Author of things. These values may
be said to be established in the world of space rather than time.
The word visvatomukhah (universally facing) implies not only
the four points of the compass, but all directions necessary to
face the universe in every way. The universe itself is a value
seen by a universal face. Thus it is a supreme gift as secondarily
implied by the word dhata (given).

Both these last two analogies have to be fitted into one time-
space framework to result in the vision of the Absolute intended
by the author here.

 

34
mrityuh sarvaharas cha 'ham
udbhavas cha bhavishyatam
kirtih srir vak cha narinam
smritir medha dhritih kshama

455

I am all-engulfing Death, and the Source throwing up
all things to be; and of womanly values, fame, grace,
speech, memory, willpower, firmness and endurance.

 

The first line of this verse suggests a kind of paradox. The
process of becoming is viewed both prospectively and
retrospectively at once. Retrospectively viewed, inasmuch as
everything is lost in "yesterday's ten thousand years" of time
called mriytuh (death). But time prospectively viewed is also a
creative principle in which all the tomorrows are implied. The
two examples taken together leaves us with a notion of the
Absolute in the context of becoming as used by Bergson.
The unique value mentioned above is of the nature of an
abstraction, which has at once to be supported by an example and
for this purpose it would evidently seem that Vyasa enumerates
the qualities which distinguish womanhood in the second line
here.

Seven qualities are mentioned, and the relation of these
qualities with the subject mentioned in the first line, could
only be in that each quality is the resultant of two opposing
forces in creative becoming represented in the personality of
womanhood.

Woman represents nature or becoming more than man, and this
is perhaps the reason why her example is chosen here.
Moreover the qualities of manhood have been mentioned
elsewhere.

Of the qualities enumerated, the first, kirtih (fame) is a
general or all-covering one. By merely being beautiful, a woman
might not come up to the requirements of true womanhood.
There is a group of qualities which contribute to the fame or
reputation of a woman. For example, a beautiful woman might
be immodest and lose her reputation.

The next quality which enhances the value of womanhood is
sri (well-being or grace). This suggests harmony. A woman who
is worried or in want may be said to lose this grace and become
a nagging nuisance.

Vak (speech) does not suggest ability to chatter but rather the
apt and pleasing use of speech which also implies the correct
adjustment of the personality, neither too positively into
exaltation, nor negatively into depression.

456

Smriti (memory) gives depth to human personality. A man or
woman without memory becomes easily a misfit in his or her
normal environment. Hysteria might refer to such a maladjustment.
Many women lack that medha (will-power) which alone can
balance the personality and keep it normal. They are often
subject to emotional crises, and the physiological and organic
demands made on womanhood make them weak in the matter of
taking firm decisions involving the power of will. When women
do have this will-power they get that distinction or value which
is here noted as an expression of the Absolute.

Dhriti (firmness) is also a balancing factor like the previous
will-power. At a moment of disaster, like the death of a near
relative, true womanhood expresses itself in the form of this
kind of firmness, when many men around them might break down.
The last attribute of true womanhood is perhaps the most
distinguishing quality. Kshama (endurance) is expressed by a
nurse like Florence Nightingale when she had to tend thousands
of wounded troops. From the Indian scene we can readily think
of the patient endurance of a Sita under the injustice of a Rama,
or a Sakuntala who forgave and forgot the gross injustice of
Dushyanta till chance reconciled them.

In every one of these, qualities we should recognise an emergent
value resulting from the neutralization of opposite tendencies.
Fickleness is said to be normal to women, even by Shakespeare.
But this could be balanced into a properly feminine quality by
its opposite of faithfulness, and when the mean is struck the
unique values of womanhood mentioned here emerge.

 

35
brihatsama tatha samnam
gayatri chandasam aham
masanam margasirsho 'ham
ritunam kusumakarah

Likewise, of hymns I am the brihat-sama; of metres I am the
gayatri; of months I am margasirsha and of seasons the
flower-abounding.

457

From the present verse onwards absolutist values belonging
to the category of luxuries are grouped together, leading
gradually to actualities of the contemporary period in which
the author himself lived, by way of concluding his series.
In xv, 1, we find that the great Asvattha (fig) tree has
leaves which are compared to the hymns of the Vedas.
Further in xv, 2, its buds are referred to as objects of sense.
It is therefore easily derivable that Vedic chants are items of
luxury value, although high up in the scale of such values
within the relative domain.

Much importance is attached to the saving effect of chants
such as the brihat-sama and the gayatri by Brahmins.
The word gayatri is said to derive its name from its power
of saving the chanter. Much speculation has been lavished
by orthodoxy on the esoteric meanings and implications of
the metre of these chants, and the Upanishads revalue the
gayatri (e.g., Brihadaranyaka v. xiv, 1-8 and Maitri 6-7).
The potency of the chants is said to depend upon these
esoteric considerations. In the Sama-Veda the brihat-sama
refers to a special kind of metre which is considered as very
potent in its own proper context, as the gayatri is in
morning and evening prayers.

The month of margasirsha, which comes in December, corresponds
in India to that resting period in nature resembling the
systole of the heart-beat. The overt phenomenal happenings
are on either side of this resting-period. The harvests have
been gathered in, and it is too early for the ground to be
prepared for the next crop. The Indian sky is mostly clear
at this time, and it is also the time for nightly drummings
in the villages; drummings which go on to the small hours of
the morning. It is thus a resting period generally favourable
for contemplation, although the leisure afforded is often
misused. Leisure constitutes the luxury item here.
How the flowering season of the Indian spring is an expression
of a value in nature is easily understood.

 

36
diyutam chalayatim asmi
tejas tejasvinam aham
jayo 'smi vyavasjyo 'smi
sattvam sattvavatim aham

I am the chance-risk of (irresponsible) gamblers, I am the
brilliance of the brilliant (people); I am victory; I am
decisiveness; I am the goodness of those established in the
real.

458

Miscellaneous everyday virtues as revealed in human society
may be said to terminate the list of values here. It should
be noticed, as we have pointed out, that it is not a
conventional set of virtues that are held up to view. The
gambler has a certain bold and skilful nonchalance, with an
attitude of abandon ready to risk all for what he prizes
most. One who is ready to lose all will gain all, as the
Biblical parable says. Thus the gambler's gamble, although
it could hardly be counted as a virtue in the conventional
social sense, has an intrinsic spiritual value in the context
of pure absolutism. The sailor who risks his life for
someone who has fallen into the sea is a gambler with life-
values and is superior to many virtuous socially superior
personalities.

When we examine closely the connotations of the terms
employed, we find on the one hand, dhyuta (the uncertain
prize won in gambling) and on the other hand, the attitude
of irresponsibility implied in the word chalayatam (one
who cheats, breaks his contract, or is incapable of keeping
his word), i.e., one who bases his conduct on chance. Thus
between risk and chance there is an implied value which is
here called dhyuta. It may be said to be full of
indetermination, occasionalism or pure luck, good, bad or
indifferent. A carefree abandon is here extolled.
Tejas, which primarily means brilliance, implies an
intellectual or spiritual alertness, a constant readiness
or preparedness to respond to any contingency, however
hazardous it might be. One hears the expressions brahma-
tejas and kshattra-tejas: the former suggesting intellectual
enthusiasm for truth; and the latter a moral enthusiasm to
see the truth. prevail.

It is easy to see how victory is a positive value, as also
decisiveness.

Sattvam (goodness) derives its Value from satyam (truth)
as explained in xvii, 26. There are people who love truth for
its own sake, and conform to the requirements of Absolute
truth directly or indirectly, the latter through truthful habits
to be described in later chapters. But goodness established
in truth transcends the region of mere gunas (qualities)
which operate within nature only, and reaches pure goodness
in itself, thus conforming to the Absolute directly.

 

37
vrishninam vasudevo 'smi
pandavanam dhanamjayah
muninam apy aham vyasah
kavinam usana kavih

459

Of the Vrishnis I am Vasudeva, of the Pandavas, Dhanamjaya
(Arjuna), of the recluses also I am Vyasa, of the poets the
poet Usana.

 

Before closing the list of values the author refers to
himself, and to Krishna, Arjuna and the poet Usana. This
seems to be by way of putting down the signature of the
people concerned or, as in the closing scene of a drama,
the appearance of all the main characters together. The
veil of illusion is here thinned out as much as possible,
and spiritual values which are intended throughout the
chapter are revealed directly through the personalities
who figure in the work itself.

The one principle which may be said to justify the
inclusion of these figures in the same verse is that they
sail in the same boat as revaluators of ancient wisdom.
Krishna the leader of a clan called Vrishnis is mentioned
first. They were a heretical and heterodox group, not of
brahmins but of kshattriyas (warriors) and vaishyas
(merchant-farmers).

Vasudeva is the name of Krishna as the son of Vasudeva,
chief of this clan.

Arjuna too is given that unique value which has been the
subject of discussion in the whole chapter, most probably
because he was a typical purva pakshin (critic taking one
side, a sceptic or questioner) in the context of absolutist
wisdom. By prowess also he excels as a simple warrior,
justifying his position even in the Puranic (legendary)
sense.

Vyasa's claims as a representative of the same high value
are quite evident since he is the author of this work on the
subject. The same signature is repeated in xviii, 75 and as
the author of the Brahma-Sutras (aphorisms strung together
dealing with the Science of the Absolute) also, which are
referred to in xiii, 4, his claims are doubly established.
As for Usana, the poet, his claim to be included in this list
of wisdom-revaluators consists in that he did not belong
strictly to the orthodox context. As a teacher of the Daityas,
enemies of the Vedic gods, mentioned in Verse 30, he was
credited with great wisdom, while at the same time he was
a poet who wrote epics rather than sastras (text-books) on
the Science of the Absolute. The spirit of these epics
cannot have been like that of Homer, judging from the fact
that Socrates, according to Plato, had a poor opinion of
Homer, while here the poet Usana is extolled as a true
representative of wisdom.

460

38
dando damayatam asmi
niter asmi jigishatam
maunam chai'va'smi guhyanam
jnanam jnanavatam aham

Of rulers I am the sceptre, of those who seek victory I am
the statesmanship, and also in esoterics I am silence, and
of knowers I am knowledge.

 

Even the thin vestige of realism attached to the values
enumerated in Verse 37 is here removed, and the items are
more of the nature of signs, i.e., figuratively treated as in
metonymy. The real concrete object loses its importance and
its symbol or name or the concept representing it comes into
prominence. We should take the lakshanartha (figurative
meaning) instead of the vachartha (literal or direct.
meaning). This is akin to what in medieval scholasticism was
known as conceptualism or nominalism.

The danda (rod or staff) referred to here is the symbol of
power rather than merely a big stick. It resembles the sceptre
of kingly power.

There is the subtle element of statesmanship or discretion
as the better part of valour, justice or fairness, which is here
referred to as niti, as an important factor in gaining victory.
Like good sportsmanship, it involves both giving and taking,
and these values do not depend on any hard and fast rule.
The situation has to be watched for the laying down of a
particular policy. This intuitive quality is the value referred
to here.

In all matters of esoteric significance here called guhyah
(secrets) there is place for an all-inclusive and subjective
attitude of silence which enhances the value of each secret as
such. A charm which has been rationally analysed loses its
flavour or potency as a charm. The same applies to the
suggestive strength of certain medicines.

Finally there is the reference to knowledge itself as a supreme
value in man.

In the present list the items are more like the ideas of Plato,
such as beauty, justice, and so forth. The opposite is true of
the list given in vii, 8-11, where the ontological principles
of existence, and not merely formal or abstract ideas, are
enumerated.

461

The list there, instead of revealing the Absolute, can be
looked upon, when taken too realistically, as tending to
hide the Absolute.

 

39
yach cha 'pi sarvabhutanam
bijam tad aham arjuna
na tad asti vin yat syan
maya bhutam characharam

And further, what is the seed of all beings, that I
am, 0 Arjuna; nor is there anything moving or unmoving
that can exist without Me.

 

It will be noticed that there is reference to the Absolute as
a seed in this verse as in vii, 10. In that verse buddhi (pure
reason) was also referred to, while knowledge was referred
to in Verse 38 here. In the seed as a value representing the
Absolute we touch the core which is common to both the series
in Chapters vii and x. The series in vii, 8, may be said
to refer to existential factors, while here it is to
abstractions tending to be hypostatic.

Further, the reference to moving and unmoving entities
would seem to suggest that the seed here represents the
central or neutral ground between the two sets of entities
listed in Chapters vii and x. This common core can be no
other than the Absolute itself, as understood in perfect
neutrality.

 

40
na'nto 'sti mama divyanam
vibhatinam paramtapa
esha tu 'ddestah prokto
vibhuter vistaro maya

There is no end to My divine unique values, 0 Paramtapa
(Arjuna); what has been said of these unique values is
but indicatory of their (possible) extensive elaboration.

 

This verse is intended to point out that the list of values
so far enumerated is not exhaustive. There is more left out
in it than included. The term uddesatah (approximative) shows
that these values are neither to be taken too realistically 
nor too theoretically. They have to be understood in the spirit
intended

462

in the text and should not lead to subtle forms of idolatry or
hypostatization.

The word vistara (extensive elaboration of detail) suggests not
only that the list is incomplete but that it is possible to
enter into minuter subdivisions under each of the items
enumerated. In this sense we can see that there is no limit to
be set for such a process of enumeration of values of the
Absolute.

 

41
yad-yad vibhutimat sattvam
srimad urjitam eva va
tad-tad eva 'vagachchha tvam
mama tejomsa sambhavam

Whatever entity is unique in perfected value, in grace or
in radical strength, understand that to have manifested
itself from a (mere fractional) spark of My brilliance.

 

The word sattvam (entity) covers ideological or conceptual
entities such as implied in the sun of Verse 21, and
statesmanship in Verse 38. Various presences or holy values
have been included side by side with others which do not
particularly belong to the context of holiness. Abstract
and concrete entities have been included indifferently as
representing subtle value-factors.

They are all brought under one sweeping generalization here,
under three headings, namely those that are (1) of unique value,
(2) those that represent grace, abundance, harmony or order, and
(3) anything that stands for vigour, strength, wilful dominating
power or a positive attitude in general, deriving validity from
truth.

The whole of the Absolute is not required to give that unique
touch to values as we cognize them in everyday life. The glory
of the Absolute has infinite potency and if we think of it as
a brilliant light, only a minute spark of it is all that is
necessary to give that uniqueness which is indicated in the
entire enumeration listed in this chapter.

 

42
athava bahunai 'tena
kim jnatena tavi 'rjuna
vishtabhya 'ham idam kritsnam
ekamsena sthito jagat

463

But what use is there for you, Arjuna, in this
pluralistic knowledge? Supporting this whole
world by a single fraction (of Myself), I remain
still, as ever).

 

The word bahuna (many, numerous, plurality) suggests
numerical rather than quantitative vastness. The
implication is that of the two ways of understanding;
namely the unitive and the pluralistic. The unitive
comprehends the Absolute more effectively than if we
were to think of taking in individually all the endless
items which go to make up the notion of the Absolute.
The Absolute is, as we have said, a gold coin for which
no amount of small change can ever suffice, as Bergson put
it. Moreover, whatever aspect of the Absolute could be
brought under enumeration is but a small fraction of what
remains of the Absolute beyond the power of enumeration.
In other words, whatever we are able to enumerate are
factors belonging to the waking world. There are other
subjective or subconscious factors which make up the
totality of existence, belonging to the two other states
of consciousness, dream and deep sleep, and also what is
often called the fourth state of consciousness, the turiya.
It is easy to concede therefore, as mentioned here, that the
Absolute remains unaffected, quite without diminution in
principle, after it has supported the visible world with but
a spark or fraction.

In fact, it is in the light of the well-known peace invocation,
where plenitude taken away from plenitude leaves plenitude
as a remainder: (aum, purnna madah purnna medam purnnat
purnam-udachyate; purnasya purnamadaya purna-meva-vasishyate:
"Plenitude is all that is invisible. Plenitude is all that
is visible. Plenitude was born out of plenitude. When
plenitude is absorbed into plenitude, plenitude alone
remains".); that we should understand here the meaning of
the word sthitah (I remain), as the Absolute, remaining
without suffering any quantitative decrease, even though
supporting the visible universe with a fraction of itself.
This chapter, read side by side with the next chapter,
where a multiplicity of divine, holy or sacred entities come
to be considered from Arjuna's, Samjaya's or Krishna's own
standpoint, would seem at first sight to have such a
miscellaneous character as would perhaps give the impression
that they have more of a religious than a philosophical
import.

464

Although this would apply to a greater extent to the next
chapter, and more especially with those parts of it which
are attributed to Arjuna or Samjaya who are religious-
minded characters, a close examination of the contents of
both chapters reveals that there is no deflection from the
philosophical approach to the subject of the Absolute.
This last verse of the present chapter brings back the
discussion to a full recognition of the philosophical import
of the notion of the Absolute, after the long digression in
the enumeration of specific. values. Taking the chapter as a
whole without this particular digression, it has a status on
a par with Chapter ix, especially when we note in Verse 4
that the Absolute understood here comprises equally both
existence and non-existence.

The spirit in which this chapter is conceived is therefore
not a religious one and this remark applies equally to the
next chapter where the same kind of digression is seen
perhaps more elaborately marked. We shall see how even
the next chapter conforms to the requirements of a strict
science or a philosophy of the Absolute when we adhere
closely to the main development of the theme in the words
of Krishna himself, without being carried away by what
will be incidentally mentioned through the intermediary
characters of a Samjaya or an Arjuna.

We have only to examine the words of Krishna at the end
of the next chapter (xi, 54-55) to see the continuity of
the theme in spite of these inevitable digressions which
have been purposely introduced by the author to bring out
the specific potent or positive aspects of the Absolute.
The position at the end of the present chapter could
therefore he summed up as follows: ethics, religion and
a way of life in general which would cure Arjuna of his
abnormal attitude in the midst of danger are still to be
described in the various chapters that follow. The
enumeration of vibhutis perfections) in this chapter only
supplies the simple basis for the superstructure which is
still to be erected so that the Gita teaching could do
positive good in curing abnormality and establishing the
spiritual aspirant represented by Arjuna on the proper
progressive path of a life of wisdom. The enumerations of
items here is therefore to be understood as being related
to three kinds of life-values: (1) those in which the
forward-flowing urge of the Absolute principle is evidenced

465

(vibhutimat), (2) those in which the neutral balancing of
neutral tendencies leads to grace, goodness or bounty in
everyday life (srimat) and (3) those in which the radical,
stable, valid or lasting aspect of Absolute truth or reality
(urjitam) is evidenced. In all three cases, values are the
resultants of the neutralization of opposing tendencies in
the process of flux or becoming characteristic of reality as
a whole, tending to produce perfect, specific models of
value, each unique in its own category or sub-category, of
which there could be a great number.

ity srimad bhagavadgitasupanishatsu brahmavidyayam
yogasastre srikrishnarjunasamvade
vibhutiyogo nama dasamo 'dhyayah

Thus ends in the Upanishads of the Songs of God, in the
Science of the Wisdom of the Absolute, in the Dialogue
between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the Tenth Chapter, entitled
Unitive Recognition of Positive Values.
 

Details

Written by Patrick Misson

Parent Category: Content

Published: 20 October 2008

Created: 20 October 2008

Last Updated: 20 June 2014

Hits: 26271

CHAPTER XI

THE UNITIVE VISION OF THE ABSOLUTE

Visvarupa Darsana Yoga

Between this chapter and the last there is a delicate
epistemological distinction. In the last chapter it was taken
for granted that there were certain unique values expressed
through actual entities belonging to the visible or at least
the conceptual world. They thus had a status of their own.
Starting with Chapter vii it was an empirical or
ontological approach from which the earth at one end of a
series and egoism at the other end, were reviewed. In
chapter ix the items or categories were seen further
sublimated in Verses 17-19 in terms of personalized aspects of
the Absolute. In Chapter x again, the Absolute was the origin
of all the entities involved. Personal endowments and
qualities of contemplative life were referred to in x, 4-5.
The absolutist touch in persons or entities was recognized
indirectly through somewhat vague generalities such as
perfections, graces or valid truths in X, 19-39. The approach
through the ontological aspects of the Absolute did not
however, really make the notion of the Absolute clear
enough. Naturally, therefore, Arjuna is left with a feeling of
dissatisfaction, and here he takes the initiative and begins
this chapter with an express desire to satisfy himself with a
more definite view of the Absolute. The answer to this desire
is in the form of a universal vision of the Absolute which
occupies the greater portion of this chapter.

We find three different sets of descriptions of the vision
presented in this chapter. Samjaya comes in again, and as an
impartial reporter of events he takes a cold and matter-of-fact
view of the vision from his own standpoint, somewhat
cosmologically, after the style of the Purusha Sukta of the
Rig Veda. There the cosmic man has innumerable hands and
heads. In Samjaya's picture the element of awe is not
predominant. On the other hand there is a conventional
complacency and childish references to perfumes and jewels.
Secondly, there is Arjuna's standpoint, most of which is in
a special metre attuned to a note of religious exaltation,
which

467

characterizes his whole attitude. It is coloured more by
theology than by cosmology. It ranges from the
conventional starting-point of a Vishnu known to
mythology, through various other forms of religious
exaggeration, to the desire to return (in Verse 46) to the
same conventional picture of a mild and soothing Vishnu.
Thirdly, running through these two varieties we hear the
steadying voice of Krishna himself, referring to his own
absolutist nature which, although free from the
cosmological or theological presuppositions or prejudices,
he attributes an even higher value to his own innate
spiritual supremacy, than what is implied in the more
conditioned vision of the other two. Krishna points out
clearly in Verses 48 and 52 that the vision here is beyond
the reach of all conventional religious notions hitherto
known, in spite of its being a marvel, as he says in Verse 6.

Moreover according to him it is a vision to be
seen only through the eye of Yoga (Verse 8). It is given
to the contemplative only. Whether Arjuna availed himself
of this offer is not reported by Samjaya.

According to Krishna in Verse 7, the vision is not a static
one. There is no fixed mould into which the vision is
supposed to fit. The man who has the vision can see
whatever he desires to see, according to his own
conditionings. Without conditioning, that is to say in
the case of a man without religious or other prejudices,
it is to be inferred that there is no vision, or that
the vision is of no importance. The vision vanishes,
and instead we have a person who is capable of making
a proper distinction between the field and the knower
of the field and does not therefore confuse or mistake
one for the other, which is the important philosophic
subject dealt with in Chapter xiii.

Chapter xii is apologetic in favour of those who are unable
to rise to such a philosophical state.

The vision in this chapter thus passes from conditioned
ideas of a cosmological person through a vision conceived
in theological terms and attains finally to the full status
of a positive picture of the Absolute in terms of an
imperative force of becoming which reaches tragic heights.

468

1
Arjuna uvacha
madanagrahaya paramam
guhyam adhyatmasa samjnitam
yat tvayo 'ktam vachas tena
moho 'yam vigato mama

Arjuna said: by that speech which has been spoken, by You out
of favour for me, the highest secret known as pertaining to the
Self, this, my confusion, has vanished.

 

The initiative passes again to Arjuna, and he recalls
that it was a special favour conferred on him in the two
previous chapters wherein it was Krishna who took
the initiative in instructing his disciple. At the opening
verse of each of these chapters we noticed the attitude of
full adoption and of favour reflected in the words addressed
to Arjuna. In Chapter ix, as one free from disadoption or
uncarping in respect of the teaching, Arjuna does not
mistrust any more and, therefore, Krishna is willing to open
his heart and confide in him deeper and more secret aspects
of the wisdom that he represents. At the beginning of 
Chapter x we noticed that the confidence gained further
ground. Krishna is there positively interested in the welfare
of Arjuna and therefore in teaching him once again.
This present verse refers backwards to what has been
dealt with in the last two chapters. Krishna's initiative is
definitely referred to here, and that is sufficient justification
for us to believe that the reference is to the two preceding
chapters. The matter developed in previous chapters generally
could come under the title of adhyatma (pertaining to the Self).
Arjuna says now that such was the subject-matter of what
Krishna has just finished discussing. We are therefore led to
think that the two central chapters contain the essential
teaching on the Self which the, Gita intends to present to the
reader. It is true that a superficial scanning of their contents
does not make this fact particularly evident, but in dealing
with these chapters we have taken sufficient care already to
indicate how the subject of the Self is implied throughout
them both. It is not an elaborate or systematic treatise on the
Self that we should expect in these chapters, but a treatment
of the subject of the Self in that neutral, dispassionate and
absolutist way. It is this which gives these chapters the status
of dealing with the Absolute in a way most fitting to the
subject of the Self. It is in this sense that

469

Arjuna's reference here to the secret Science of the Self
should be understood as having just been declared by
Krishna.

Arjuna, further adds significantly that his own moha
(confusion) has been dispelled by the teaching in the two
previous chapters. This further confirms our view that
these two central chapters contain the teaching of the Gita,
at least in a form which would dispel confusion on the
subject. In xviii, 73, we notice that Arjuna repeats the
statement with the additional remark that he has not only
come out of confusion but has regained his memory. The
teaching of the Gita must accordingly serve other disciples
like Arjuna to dispel their confusion also in the first place,
and then to reorientate their own personalities in terms of
memory.

The part covered by the Gita so far has to do with the
first mentioned purpose, and what is to follow may
therefore be legitimately looked upon as having the second
purpose in view, as we shall try to confirm as we proceed
with these chapters which constitute the latter half of the
book.

 

2
bhavapyayau hi bhutanam
srutau vistaraso maya
tvattah kamalapattraksha
mahatmyam api cha 'vyayam

The origin and dissolution of beings have been heard by me
in elaboration from You, 0 Lotus-petal-eyed, as also Your
unexpended greatness.

 

A confident and more intimate attitude on the part of
Arjuna towards Krishna is implied here, especially by the
appellation kamalapattraksha (O Lotus-petal-eyed). This is
to be contrasted with his own attitude after he has seen
Krishna in his universal form in Verses 35 and 42 later.
However, normal relations are again established by Verse 51.
The intermediate phases of Arjuna's exaltation, trance, or
spiritual agony are implied in the words of Arjuna himself
in the rest of the chapter or through the report of
Samjaya.

As seen in this chapter, the personality of Krishna ranges
from the most intimate or ordinary human form of a relative
and friend of Arjuna to one where it touches impersonal
heights of transcendentalism, as near to the Absolute as
could be, as it were, from this side of reality. Before
coming to such a presentation there is here a backward
reference

470

to the appraisal of the Absolute as envisaged in the two
previous chapters. In ix, 4-10, a picture of the Absolute
was already given. The Absolute was referred to both as a
source as well as an emanating principle in ix, 8. In x, 20,
the Absolute is not only the beginning but the end of all
beings. These various references to origin or end are what
justifies the reference here to bhavapyayau (origin and
dissolution). Though these processes are aspects which
seem to contradict each other as phases of a centralized
process of pure becoming, they are attributes of the same
Absolute. Chapter x made an attempt to present a picture
of the Absolute under various categories, each separate
from the other, and all belonging to items widely apart and
lacking in any space-time unity.

A vestige of duality suggested by the dual number employed
in the word srutau ("the two" have been heard) may be
accepted in the sense that the origin and end are not
identical. These have to be treated unitively and such
treatment has already been attempted in parts of the
previous chapters (Cf. ix, 17 ff. and x, 2,14,19 ff).
Thus, taking Verses 1 and 2 of the present chapter, we
find that there is a summary of the title, subject-matter and
characteristics of the two previous chapters, summed-up
by the author himself. This is done with a view to contrast
such contents with what is to follow, where the Absolute
is to be confronted in a more positive, unitive and
objectively conceived manner.

The actualization of the Absolute might have its limitations
and drawbacks in a purely philosophical sense, but
philosophy is not limited to merely idealistic abstractions.
When it does not become too anthropomorphic or puerile or
a localized and temporarily fixed vision, such a
visualization of the Absolute need not necessarily, merely
because of definiteness of treatment, fall outside the
scope of a respectable form of philosophizing. The
philosophical character of the vision of this chapter
will be evident to anyone capable of penetrating behind
the literary device consciously used by the author.
In fact, when we examine minutely the implications of
the vision of Arjuna as meant by Vyasa or as seen through
the direct words of Krishna, the charge that this chapter
represents a childish or very ordinary form of religious
theophany falls to the ground. Arjuna in fact reveals
himself as a full-fledged philosopher in Verse 18 here.
The difference between

471

this chapter and the two previous ones is the question
confronting us in the present verse.

Hitherto, the Absolute was looked upon through what may
be called pure becoming, non-localized in time and space.
In this chapter, however, Arjuna feels the need for
appraising the Absolute in a more positive, fixed or actual
manner. Krishna's own personality has been tacitly treated
as representing the Absolute from the very beginning of
this work. One is not charged with puerile anthropomorphism
when one uses such an expression as "the body politic".
The more positive a notion becomes, the more it may be
said to be conceived in terms of actuality in location and
time. Making allowances, therefore, for such considerations
and limitations, we come in this chapter to a section
wherein the Absolute is seen as a vision involving a
superior person who in turn represents the Absolute.

 

3
evam etad yatha 'ttha tvam
atmanam paramesvara
drashtum ichchhami te
rupam aisvaram purushottama

So it is as You have said Yourself, supreme Lord; I desire to
see Your divine Form, 0 supreme Person.

 

This verse repeats the idea of x, 15, to call our attention once
again to the fact that the Absolute is best seen from its own
standpoint. To objectify the Absolute, whether concretely or
through abstract concepts, can only be indirect. The vision that
follows in this chapter is therefore to some extent discredited,
but presented as one to be understood with the allowance for the
limitations as implied here.

When Arjuna is said to see the form of Krishna we have to
take it that Arjuna sympathises with Krishna to such an extent as
to identify himself with Krishna and thus to see the vision as
Krishna would see it himself. An externalized vision is not what
is meant here. Verse 8 later implies the same principle of
sympathetic intuition when it refers to the divine eye.
The express desire of Arjuna to have a vision such as
many religious people naturally, believe in, or claim to have
had in their lives, lends its plausibility to support Vyasa's
inclusion of a vision of this kind in the Gita, a vision which
might

472

at least be normal in a purana (legend). The request to see
the rupam aisvaram (form divine) comes from Arjuna, who
is theologically conditioned, but this request is not granted
by Krishna, as we have pointed out. It is neither a merely
philosophical description nor a religious vision which is
given in this chapter. Concessions are made both ways and
the vision is both awe-inspiring and real.

 

4
manyase yadi tach chhakyam
maya drashtum iti prabho
yogesvara tato me tvam
darsayi 'tmanam avyayam

If You think that it is possible for me to see it, 0 Powerful
One, then do You, 0 Yoga-Master, show Me Your never-decreasing
Self.

 

Arjuna here refers to the vision he is about to have. In the
context of religion and mysticism in general, various kinds
of visions have been described. Some of them depend on
the special psychic state of the contemplative himself, or
the type of mysticism he represents. Well-known mystics
in the Christian and Sufi worlds present a variety which
has been the subject-matter of study on the part of writers
such as William James. From quietism and even erotic
mysticism, through practical religious works, to the heights
of ecstasy and even agony - they present a vast range of
possibilities in the world of spiritual experience.
On the other hand special circumstances may be said to
evoke certain states of mind which may be called exalted
states of ecstasy. These also have their corresponding
visions. A highly mature philosopher can have his own
version of a vision which can be treated both as an allegory
or a true vision in the actual sense.

On the Indian soil there is a tendency for the religious and
the philosophical visions to meet, and one is capable
of being interpreted in terms of the other. In the vision
which is to follow we should notice it is neither the subject
who feels the ecstasy nor the person inducing the ecstasy is
totally responsible for the vision. Arjuna asks for a vision,
but whether the vision is possible for a human being is still
a matter of doubt with him, as he expresses here.

473

It is again significant that Krishna is addressed as a
Lord of Yoga. A yogi is one capable of assuming whatever
form he likes. In other words, he is one capable of sliding
upwards or downwards in the contemplative scale of
values represented in his own personality. He is not
statically fixed to any one type of personal expression, but
enjoys a certain degree of freedom.

The request here by Arjuna is that Krishna should
present himself as the One Self incapable of suffering any
decrease or deterioration. What we should particularly
notice is that the vision is a double-sided phenomenon; by
request on one side and consent on the other, instead of
being of the nature of a one-sided personal weakness.
Samjaya is the mildest visionary; Arjuna is capable of a
higher degree of exaltation - and Krishna himself, as
representing the Absolute, goes beyond what is
understandable or pleasing to either. The full implications
of Krishna's own absolutism are left beyond the reach of
not only Arjuna himself but that of most persons who have
hitherto tried to visualize the Absolute.

 

5
Sribhagavan uvacha
pasyame partha rupani
sataso 'tha sahasrasah
nanavidhani divyani
nanavarnakritani cha

Krishna said:
Behold, 0 Partha (Arjuna), My forms, by hundreds
and thousands, various in kind, divine, and of
varied colours and shapes.

 

Except for what is implied in the expression divyani
(divine), there is nothing in this verse which requires any
special vision at all. Coloured, therefore, by this quality
called divine, which merely suggests a contemplative value,
the vision, instead of starting with any hair-raising item,
refers rather to ordinary physical realities, such as the
multiplicity of forms and varieties therein, and the colourful
nature of the phenomenal world as seen by the ordinary
man. In referring to all of them together in generalized
terms, there is to be recognized however, a mildly
philosophical approach.

474

6
pasya 'dityan vasan rudran
asvinau marutas tatha
bahuny adrishtapurvani
pasya 'scharyani bharata

Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Asvins,
and also the Maruts; behold many marvels never seen before,
0 Bharata (Arjuna.).

 

The contemplative vision rises one degree higher here.
Instead of phenomenal aspects that every man can see,
here are ranged certain values which are familiar, as they
have once been covered in the last chapter. The sun
(Aditya) as the largest of luminaries having a direct
influence on human happiness is mentioned first in this
series. The series passes on to include other entities known
to the Vedic world which tend to become more hypostatic
in character, rather than remaining purely phenomenal. The
element of marvel or wonder is correspondingly heightened
one degree.

These marvels described as adrishtapurvani (never seen
before) gives us the hint to what is more explicitly stated
in Verses 52 and 53 later. The claim implied here is that
the teaching of the Gita is a revaluation and a restatement
beyond what has been accomplished by anyone previously.
In other words, a more thorough-going absolutism is
represented in the Gita.

 

7
ihai 'kastham jagat kritsnam
pasya 'dya sacharacharam
mama dehe gudakesa
yach cha 'nyad drashtum ichchhasi

Now behold here in My body, 0 Gudakesa (Arjuna), the whole
world, including the static and the dynamic, unitively
established, and whatever else you desire to see.

 

In the last chapter where unique values were enumerated,
Arjuna was required to arrive at the notion of the Absolute
indirectly through a variety of examples chosen from a vaster
range distributed all over space and time or as contained in
the mind itself. Here in this verse Krishna points out that
there is no need of such distribution in the vision Arjuna

475

is going to have. The vision is localized in Krishna's own
body, of course, symbolically understood. In the last
chapter the recognition was pluralistic and partial, but here
it becomes a more complete or centralized, unitive vision.
The ambivalent aspects involving static and dynamic
values, here comprised under the expression sacharaharam
(both static and dynamic) are to be viewed as if brought
into a central, unitive focus, ihai 'kastham (here, standing
as one). Arjuna is further asked not to limit himself to what
is given only by such values, but to extend his imagination
if he likes, to whatever else he is capable of visualizing.
Therefore, though localized and fixed, the vision is fully
credited with its own dynamic aspects. This latitude or
concession kindly made in favour of the visionary really
amounts to calling upon him to be more a philosopher than
a visionary. By implication, this suggests that no vision,
however superior, is to be made into a fetish. Even modern
physics gives us an expanding universe full of indeterminism
and not one that is statically fixed.

 

8
na tu mam sakyase drashtum
anenai 'va svachakshusha
divyam dadami te chakshuh
pasya me yogam aisvaram

But if you are unable to see Me with this your (human) eye,
I give you a divine eye: Behold My sovereign Yoga.

 

What is objectively divine evidently presupposes its
counterpart which is the capacity in the subject to recognize
divinity. This law of mutual accord is further confirmed
here, over and above what was implied with reference to
the divine in Verse 5.

The "divine eye" here may be said to be that capacity to
recognize spiritual values, but because the vision is enclosed
in the brackets, as it were, of the first degree or Sanjaya
literary device, so there is no need to take it as seriously as
the descriptions of the vision belonging to the third degree
or samvada (discussion) order. Mere "human eyes", however,
are too weak even to see the continuous flow of events in
time. They can comprise only an empirical view of reality
consisting of disjunct events. A vision of

476

creative becoming or flux is given only to the yogic or
divine eye. It is the intuitive element implied in such a
vision which is called jnanachakshush (Wisdom-eye)
elsewhere (e.g., xiii, 34 and xv, 10).

 

9
Samjaya uvacha
evam uktva tato rajan
maha yogesvaro harih
darsayam asa parthaya
paramam rupam aisvaram

Samjaya said
Having thus spoken, then, 0 King (Dhritarashtra),
Hari (Krishna) the great Yoga-Master showed to Partha
(Arjuna) the supreme Godly Form.

 

This verse begins the section in which Samjaya again
reports to King Dhritarashtra what happened. Samjaya is
essentially a religious man and besides referring to Krishna
as Hari, which is a name for Vishnu, he looks upon the
vision of the universal form itself through his own
theological conditionings as expressed in the word
aisvaram (divine, godly, pertaining to Isvara, or God).
Isvara is a theological concept belonging to the relativist
and not to the absolutist viewpoint, which latter is proper
to Vedanta.

As a mere reporter in the Puranic or epic setting of the
Gita, this position of Samjaya is only to be expected. But
even as a mere reporter we find such expressions as maha-
yogesvara (the great Yoga-Master) and paramam (supreme).
In effect these words lift the report above the merely
epic or Puranic context towards a Vedantic status.
This is confirmed by Verse 12 later, where Krishna is
described without any conventional religious or theological
reservations. But even here the limitations of the epic
outlook are not altogether absent, as the reference to a
thousand suns is not the same as referring to innumerable
suns. The first degree (Samjaya) device is responsible for
the conservative tinge that still remains.

 

10
aneka vakira nayanam
aneka bhuta darsanam
aneka divyabharanam
divyanekedyatayudham

477

With many mouths and eyes, with many marvellous aspects,
with many divine ornaments, with many divine weapons held
aloft,

 

This verse is reminiscent of the cosmic man familiarly
known as the Purusha Sukta in the Rig Veda (ix, 4, 90).
The Vedic conditioning of Samjaya is sufficiently evident
here, although in the next verse we can definitely
distinguish tendencies belonging to the counterblast to
Vedism in the iconographic language which has distinctly
characterized South Indian spirituality (see "The Word of
the Guru", Ch. xvi. P. Natarajan, Bangalore). Even in the
present verse, the reference, to ornaments and weapons is
more iconographic than purely Vedic.

 

11
divya malyambara dharam
divya gandhanulepanam
sarvascharyamayam devam
anantam visvatomukham

Wearing divine garlands and vestures, anointed with
divine perfumes and unguents, a God representing
sheer marvel, without end universally-facing.

 

Notice here that the element of awe is not yet evident. It
is rather a benign and even luxury-loving god of ritualistic
worship who is portrayed. The universal touch implied in a
truly contemplative attitude comes into evidence only in
the references to the ascharya (marvel), anantam (without
end) and visvatamukham, (universally-facing). The latter
occurred before in x, 33. Taken altogether, the vision, even
according to the report of Samjaya, does not fall short of
an absolute dignified enough for Vedanta, although
cosmological and theological limitations are still evident.

 

12
divi suryasahasrara
bhavedyogapad utthita
yadi bhah sadrisi sa syad
bhasas tasya mahatmanah

13
tatrai 'kasthamjagat kritsnam
pravibhaktam anekadha
apasyad devadevasya
sarire pandavas tadi

478

If the splendour of a thousand suns were to rise together in
the sky that might resemble the splendour of that great Soul.

There the Pandava (Arjuna) then beheld the whole world,
divided into many kinds, unitively established in the body of
the God of gods.

 

These verses supplement the description of the cosmic
man in the version of Samjaya. Though still sober and not
given to exaggerations or specialized elaboration, these traits
that necessarily characterize a full cosmic vision are
contained even in this description in what might be called a
nuclear form. Verse 12 in particular, in referring to the
splendour of a thousand suns, uses the favourite simile of
light which has always represented wisdom. The comforting
imagery of the previous verses is discarded in favour of
more positive aspects, such as the brilliance which penetrates
every object. In spite of being. a light, the Being is still
referred to as mahatma (great soul), which keeps the vision
from being understood too diffusedly or as a mere abstraction.
The manifold parts of a cosmic vision referred to in Verse
13 could be the three worlds; bhur, bhuvar and svar, familiar
to the gayatri prayer of the brahmins; or they could be the
fourteen worlds known to tradition, seven below reaching
down to Patala, the lowest, and seven above rising to
Brahma's world or Satya-loka (the world of Truth) where there is
eternal life. Intermediate lokas (worlds) belong to other
spiritual entities such as rishis (seers). A serial or graded
cosmos is here suggested, consisting of the abodes of the
most trivial of creation to that of the highest Brahma. A
contemplative scale of values is here implied.
The reference to the body of Krishna is in the same sense
as we have pointed out under verse 7. The localization does
not detract from the philosophical status of the vision; as
each vision must be necessarily limited by the power to see
on the part of the subject and the power to manifest on the
part of the object (the Absolute).

The expression devadeva (God of gods) ought to absolve
even the vision of Samjaya's report from any charge of being

479

merely theological, although a markedly theological outlook
was his natural starting-point. The epithet is suggestive of
purushottama (the most high Spirit) elaborated in xv, 18-19.

 

14
tatah sa visvamayavishto
hrishtaroma dhanamjayah
pranamya sirasa devam
kritanjalir abhashata

Then he, Dhanamjaya (Arjuna), struck with amazement, with his
hair standing on end, reverently bowing his head to the God,
and with joined palms, said:

 

In the construction of this chapter we should notice there
is a graded continuity in the vision, irrespective of the
person or character through whose words the vision itself
happens to be described. Arjuna's own vision follows
naturally on the vision reported by Samjaya, and Samjava's
own mood blends with it, except for the difference here
stated that Arjuna was very excited. The tendency to religious
or spiritual exaggeration is therefore only to be expected
in the description that Arjuna himself gives, which now follows.
The reference to hrishtaroma (the hair standing on end)
being a physiological symptom of exaltation, was referred
to already in I, 29. Whenever a situation overwhelms
Arjuna or is too much for him, this symptom appears.
The familiar attitude of a devotee is reflected in Arjuna here
as Samjaya sees him, but Arjuna himself, on recovering
from his exalted state, is seen to establish normal relations
with Krishna once again (as at the beginning of this
chapter) in Verse 51. He apologises however in Verse 42
for any possible irreverence shown to his friend Krishna.
Between these three attitudes of Arjuna, revealed in the
same chapter, the intelligent reader is free to surmise for
himself what Arjuna's proper attitude actually was, in
keeping with his status of a purva pakshin (anterior-sceptic
or questioner-disciple) in the context of wisdom; or of a
mere supplicant in a more traditional or religious sense.
The retention of the word devam (god) in this last verse of
Samjaya's reporting indicates the theological limitation to
which his version of the vision as a whole is to be taken its
subject.

480

15
Arjuna uvacha
pasyami devams tava deva dehe
sarvams tatha bhuta visesha samghan
brahmanam isam kamalasanastham
rishims cha sarvan uragams cha divyan

Arjuna said:
I see the gods, 0 God, in Your body, and all specific groups
of beings, Brahma the Lord, established on his lotus-seat and
all seers (rishis)and divine serpents.

 

Arjuna covers the same cosmological and theological entities
or groups in his own way, after the same has been covered
twice already in the words of Krishna and Samjaya. The
elemental or phenomenal expressions are viewed as belonging
to specific groups or categories in the first instance.
To recognize specific groups is the first step towards a
philosophic generalization which is implicit in a
contemplative vision of the whole universe. A plant or an
animal of a particular species has its own status in reality.
Hence the reference in the phrase bhuta visesha samghan
(specific groups of beings) is legitimately of a
contemplative order. Contemplation does not tend to
abolish specific manifested realities, but by grouping them
in a serial order of importance, gives them their legitimate
place in a scale of values ranging from the most ordinary to
the highest spirituality known to man. Ontological aspects
are therefore not omitted but transcended. The reference to
Brahma, seated on a lotus, savours of the favourite
theological-mythological imagery of Hinduism. He is the
first god of creation. A lotus with a thousand petals has
been the favourite symbol of creation both in Hinduism
and Buddhism. Brahma, therefore, represents a unique or
specialized manifestation of a cosmic value. The reference
to such a god after referring to groups of actualities is
therefore quite in place. The lotus seat of Brahma is on the
actual side, while Brahma himself may be considered as
lifted up into a world of contemplative values.

The rishis (seer-sages) as wise men have a superior value
to mere created things however perfect.

The value of serpents in the contemplative context perhaps
consists in their representing time or eternity. The
world of serpents is often spoken of as belonging to a
superseded

481

nether-world of spirituality, and thus may be said to cover
all retrospective values generally. Their divinity consists
in their being included in the contemplative scale of values
here.

The first mentioned in the series here is devas (gods),
suggestive of all the gods of the Vedas. This is
counterbalanced by the reference to the divine serpents.
Vedic gods represent the foreground of the Indian spiritual
scene, while the superseded naga (serpent) worship belongs
to the remote background.

 

16
aneka bahudara vaktra netram
pasyami tvam sarvato 'nantarupani
na 'ntam na madhyam na punas tava 'dim
pasyami visvesvara visvarupa

I see You of boundless form on every side, with
multitudinous arms, stomachs, mouths and eyes; neither Your
end, nor Your middle, nor Your begining do I see, 0 Lord
of the Universe, 0 Universal Form!

 

The difference of treatment of the notions of the Absolute
here and in the previous chapter becomes clear in this
verse. While in x, 2 and 32, the Absolute was viewed from
the angle of a process of becoming and considered as a
source, beginning, middle and end, each distinguishable,
here in Arjuna's vision, these three aspects of the process
tend to be abolished. Samjaya's picture in Verse 10, earlier, is
accentuated on the same lines here to the point of infinity,
instead of being merely numerical. The transition from the
relative to the Absolute must be noted. When a number
becomes too great it tends to be in effect the same as
infinity. A mild relativist vision conforming to general
verities, such as that of Samjaya, when intensified as seen
here, leads to a finalized notion of the Absolute represented
by Krishna's version of his own absolutist glory mentioned
in this chapter and elsewhere.

 

17
kiritinam gadinam chakrinam cha
tejorasim sarvato diptimantam
pasyami tvam durniriskshyam samantad
diptanalarkadyutim aprameyam

I behold You with diadem, mace and discus, glowing everywhere
as a mass of light, hard to look at, everywhere blazing like
fire and sun, unpredicable.

 

482

There is reference here to the familiar form of Vishnu of
Indian mythology, with diadem, mace and discus. If Arjuna
already sees Vishnu in the universal form presented here, it
would seem incongruous for him again to pray, as he does,
for a vision of the same as stated in Verse 46. There is
perhaps a minimal and maximal degree in the exaltation
implied in the vision. The vision is not one to be conceived
as the product of a single uniformly continued state of mind.
The first reference to the figure of Vishnu which he sees
must be taken as marking a minimal degree of exaltation.
The exaltation becomes too much for him as it proceeds.
By the time the vision develops to what is represented
in Verse 44 it gains the character of an agony rather than
one pleasant or sufferable. It can therefore be thought
that the second reference to Vishnu is by way of a request
to regain normality.

Though a conventional static figure, Vishnu corresponds to
a stage in a scale of values representing the Absolute. Hence
his inclusion in the vision of Arjuna, who is himself
conditioned by the conventions of his time, is not to be
considered out of place.

Further we notice here that it is a dazzling Vishnu rather
than a beneficent godhead. His glory transcends the
conventional relativist limits usually associated with
Vishnu as a beneficent god.

The epithet aprameyam (unpredicable) gives the hallmark of
philosophy even to this verse which seems to stem from a
theological Vishnu. The verses that follow accentuate the
same tendency much more specifically. There is no reference
here to Vishnu as one of the avatars, which is an idea later
than the Gita as Prof. Lacombe of Paris has pointed out.
The Bhagavata partiality for the vyuha (distributive
arrangement) theory of four divine persons of whom Vasudeva
is the highest, is also absent here (cf. p. 26, "L'Absolu
selon le Vedanta").

 

18
tvam aksharam paramam veditavyam
tvam asya visvasya param nidhanam
tvam avyayah sasvata dharma gopta
sanatana tvam purusho mato me

You are the Imperishable, the Supreme (that is) to be
known; You are the ultimate Basis of this universe;
You are the unexpended and everlasting Custodian of
(natural) law; You are the immemorial Person; I believe.

483

Here there is a mixed reference to widely differing values
from the philosophical and ethical to the cosmological,
reminiscent of the later style of the Svetasvatara Upanishad,
where notions such as dharma (naturally right law) are
treated side by side with merely ontological references.
As the metre itself indicates, a state of high exaltation
and synthetic vision is reflected here, hardly capable of
being analysed.

The expression veditavyam (to be known) implies a far-
off philosophical goal of understanding; while nidhanam
(basis) hearkens backwards to the ontological aspect of the
same reality. Both extremes are further described as either
paramam (supreme) or param (ultimate). The ontological
ultimate coincides with the teleological goal.

The eternal moral conscience and the primordial man also
come together in the second half of this verse, marking the
height of philosophical vision of which Arjuna is capable.
The expression mato me (my conviction is this or, I
believe) indicates that Arjuna himself takes a sure stand
here. He is no more in doubt. When we remember that the
Gita finally recommends the discarding of all dharma (law)
in xviii, 66, Arjuna's reference to moral value here may be
considered as belonging to a merely human context.

 

19
anddimadhyantam anantaviryam
anantabahum sasisuryaretram
pasyami tvam diptahutasavaktram
svatejasi visvam idam tapantam

I see You without beginning, middle or end, of never-ending
force, of numberless arms, having moon and sun for eyes;
Your face like a lit fire of sacrifice burning this universe
with Your own radiance.

 

Here we have another confection in which different concepts
are mixed together to give a new flavour to a revalued
spirituality approximating to the absolutist vision of the
Gita as a whole.

The first line is a repetition of the idea of the urge of
pure becoming, knowing neither middle, beginning nor end. The
second line suggests the cosmic purusha (spirit) with sun
and moon for eyes. The third line is taken from the context
of

484

Vedic sacrifices, the brightness of which is a moment in the
eternal present. The fourth line suggests the whole universe
as being consumed by this radiant glow of the Absolute.
In philosophic content this picture is not different from
Krishna's own version in Verse 32.

 

20
dyavaprithivyor idam antaram hi
vyaptam tvayai 'kena disas cha sarvah
drishtva 'dbhutam rupam ugram tave 'dam
lokatrayam pravyathitam mahatman

The space between heaven, earth and the intermediate realm
is pervaded by You alone, as also the quarters (directions);
having seen this wonderful, terrible form of Yours, the
three worlds are in distress, 0 Great Self.

 

The different levels into which earth and heaven and the
space between are familiarly divided, as being populated by
different grades of spiritual entities, ranging between simple
humans to devas (divinities), are here telescoped unitively
into a more comprehensive vision with a tragic touch about
it. The Vedas had the more comforting picture in which
souls were described as floating up to heaven or returning to
earth by a slow accumulation of merit. This naive picture has
been deprecatingly alluded to in ix, 20 and 21.

The present unitive though tragic picture is in keeping with
the spirit of the Gita and with Krishna's own idea of the
Absolute as seen at the end of the present chapter.
The Absolute is for the first time represented by the term
pravyathitam (distressed), as suggestive of unhappiness or
tragedy. This term also suggests a Rudra or a Siva more
than a Vishnu.

 

21
ami hi tvam surasamgha visanti
kechid bhitah pranjalayo grinanti
svasti 'ty uktva maharshisiddhasamghah
stuvanti tvam stutibhih pushkalabhih

22
rudraditya vasavo ye cha sadhya
visve 'svinau marutas cho 'shmapas cha
gandharva yakshasura siddha samgha
vikshante tvam vismitas chai 'va sarve

485

Into You enter those hosts of the Suras (gods), some
in fear of You mutter with joined palms, bands of great
rishis (seer-sages) and Perfected Ones (siddhas) hail
You with the cry "May it be well!" and praise You with
resounding hymns.

The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus and Sadhyas, Visvas and the
two Asvins, Maruts and Ushmapas hosts of Gandharvas,
Yakshas, Asuras and Siddhas, all gaze at You, wonderstruck.

 

Different orders of spiritual beings, some purely Vedic
and others belonging to other contexts, including that of
ancestor-worship (the Ushmapas being a class of pitris or
ancestors) are all brought together here as praising the
Absolute. In Verse 22 even the Asuras, the demonic enemies
of the Vedic gods, the opposites of the Suras of verse 21, are
not omitted.

When a god is to be praised in India, it is usual to heighten
the effect by reference to sages like Narada and others who
come to worship him. The gods are thus given a revalued
status. Following the same method here, the status of the
Absolute implied in the vision of Arjuna is said to have the
approbation of all kinds of spiritual entities without
distinction. It is the special privilege of maharshis (great
seer-sages) alone to welcome the vision with svasti (May it be
well!). Others either worship - or watch with fear or amazement.

 

23
rupam mahat te bahuvaktranetram
mahabaho bahubahurupadam
bahudaram bahudamshtrakaralam
drishtva lokah pravyathitas tatha 'ham

Seeing Your great form, with many mouths and eyes,
0 Mighty-armed One (Krishna), of many arms, thighs and
feet, with many stomachs, with many terrible teeth,
the worlds are distressed, as also myself.

 

Beginning with mouths and eyes, here the cosmic man is again
portrayed from top to bottom. The object here is evidently
to refer to his terrible destructive aspect. The reference
to terrible teeth in the third line is evidence of this
intention. In Verse 25 the teeth themselves are compared to

486

flames. In the irresistible process of becoming, all specific
entities have to be absorbed and lost. Instead of stating this
philosophic verity in plain language, here is the allegorical
representation of a cosmic man with all his limbs, each of
which represents a particular grade in the hierarchy of
transformed values in the cosmic process. The distress at the
same time affects both Arjuna on the one side and the
cosmos on the other side. This is a subtle way of suggesting
a parallelism between the subjective and the objective
aspects of the vision. Contemplative methodology tends to
minimize the distinction between subject and object.

 

24
nabhahsprisam diptam anekakavarnam
vyattanam diptavisalanetram
drishtva hi tvam pravyathitantaratma
dhritim na 'vindami samam cha vishno

25
damshtrakaralani cha te mukhani
drishtvai 'va kalanalasamnibhani'
diso na jane na labhe cha sarma
prasida devesa jagannivasa

On seeing You touching the sky, shining in many
a colour with mouths wide open, with large fiery
eyes, my inmost self intensely distressed, I find
neither courage nor control, 0 All-pervading One.

Having seen Your mouths fearful with teeth like
time's devouring flames, I lose my spatial bearings
and find no joy; be gracious, 0 Lord of Gods,
Container of the World!

 

These verses continue the picture of the cosmic man with
more subtle touches than in the last verse. Visual aspects
and the light element gain prominence. The teeth are
compared to flames. The epithet "Vishnu" in Verse 24 is used
perhaps as in Verse 30 in the sense of all-pervading as the
word means, and need not suggest a deity.

The overpowering effect of the vision on Arjuna is clearly
stated. This must be due to the highly positive character
of the representation - as scraping the sky, rainbow-coloured,
and then the flamelike teeth spreading everywhere - all of
which portrays an accelerated process of becoming, as the
term kalanalasamnibhani (resembling the fire of
time) suggests.

487

26
ami cha tvam dhritarashtrasya putrah
sarve sahai 'va 'vanipalasamghaih
bhishmo dronah sutaputras tatha 'sau
saha 'smadiyair api yodhamukhyaih

27
vaktrani te tvaramana visanti
damshtrakaralani bhayanakani
kechid vilagna dasanantareshu
samdrisyante churnitair uttamangaih

All these sons of Dhritarashtra, with hosts of rulers,
Bhishma, Drona, and that son of a charioteer (Kama),
with our warrior chiefs

are rushing into Your fearful mouths terrible with
teeth; some are found sticking in the gaps between
the teeth with their heads crushed to powder.

 

The reference here is to the context of warfare. War may be
compared to a landslide in human affairs. When it is let
loose there is a general reshuffling, fusing or melting of
values, and a new order of things, social, economical, not to
mention political, emerges. It is not merely enemies that are
involved, as each one of the contending parties might
mechanistically think. Kings are involved in it as much as
the adopted son of a charioteer. All belong equally to a
single situation.

Hence the reference to Sutaputra (i.e. Karna), adopted son
of a charioteer. He was a hero and a nobleman in his own right,
but only indirectly connected with the Kauravas and even
the Pandavas. The reason why warriors and heroes are all
put together for destruction must be because they constitute
dynamic social elements. Bhishma and Drona more particularly
represent types of spirituality in their own persons, even
outside the concept of heroism.

The reference to heads being crushed to powder is particularly
ghastly, as in keeping with the warfare which is both actual
and terrible at once. The gaps between the teeth in which some
of these warriors are caught must refer to those like Arjuna
himself who, though hesitating to fight, have no option.
They are hemmed in by two aspects of necessity and

488

obliged to be pressed onwards, caught in a surging queue
as it were. That everybody is equally involved, including
Arjuna, is again stated in its converse form by Krishna in
Verse 32.

An item such as warfare ought to be thought of in the
process of becoming as one among many such in the cosmic
process as a whole. Hence it is that mouths are
plural here rather than singular. The plural employed in
reference to the interstices between the teeth need not,
therefore, apply to one and the same mouth only. Thus the
meaning we have given above is further justified.

 

28
yatha nadinam bahavo 'mbuvegah
samudram eva 'bhimukha dravanti
tatha tava 'mi naralokavira
visanti vaktrany abhivijvalanti

As many rushing torrents of rivers race towards
the ocean, so do these heroes in the world of men
enter Your flaming mouths.

 

The figure of speech is here modified, from the picture of
a cosmic man devouring all, to one of a cosmic principle
above which absorbs into itself all the varied items of
becoming found in the existing cosmos. These varied
processes are compared to rivers that enter the mouths
which lead presumably into an ocean. The urge of necessity
seems reversed in the present verse. Instead of devouring,
the rivers by themselves, by the force of their currents,
push into the mouths of the sea. The plurality of mouths
employed here becomes a negligible factor, and when we
read also that the mouths are flaming, the realism becomes
completely violated in the mixed metaphor. There is a
strange mixture of realism and symbolism here. This verse
only prepares the way for the picture presented in Verse 31
where realistic imagery is abandoned in favour of a
numinous presence representing the Unknown, attaining the
point of being merely a "tremendous mystery".

 

29
yatha Pradiptam jvalanam patanga
visanti nasaya samridhhavegah
tathai 'va nasaya visanti lokas
tava 'pi vaktrani samriddhavegah

489

As moths speed into a blazing fire to be destroyed,
just so do these worlds also speed into Your mouths
unto their destruction.

Heliotropism is a phenomenon familiar in natural science.
Life turns towards the sun. The bright fire of the cosmic
principle, which has been compared to a vast sea with bright
mouths, is treated here as a light into which everything is
reabsorbed in the great cosmic process of becoming. Just as
knowledge is attractive or interesting to man, so a brilliant
light fills the whole of the interest of an insect and blinded,
as it were, by the interest, it seeks to merge itself in the
supreme light. In the world of human values all unitary
items strive to reach the unitive Absolute. The individuality
of each unit thus becomes extinguished in the boundlessness
of the Absolute. Such are some of the philosophical
implications of the vision represented here.

The reference to lokah (worlds) refers to value systems which
may be said to merge in the supreme value of the Absolute.

 

30
lelihyase grasamanah samantal
lokan samagran vadanair jvaladbhih
tejobhir apurya jagat samagram
bhasas tavo 'grah pratapanti vishno

You lick up, devouring all worlds on every side with Your
flaming mouths, filling the whole world with glory;
Your fierce rays are blazing forth, 0 All-pervading One.

 

The image presented here is not unlike the one in the
Mundaka Upanishad (I, ii, 4), where reference is made to the
seven tongues of fire, the most important one of which is
called visvaruchi (the universe-taster). The universe may be
said to leap into visible form by the principle of light, while
colours, shapes and forms may be said to be gradations in
light. This principle may be said to contain all varieties.
If we extend the figure of speech further backwards and
think of light as representing wisdom, all kinds of values in
this world are implied in the supreme value of the Absolute.
It is in this sense that the glory of the Absolute is said to
fill the very worlds that have entered into Its mouths.

490

The all-pervading Vishnu conforms to a supreme Sun rather
than a cosmic man as hitherto pictured. Ontological
imagery has given place to one teleologically conceived.
The reference to filling the whole world with glory cannot
be understood if a cosmic man devoured all the worlds. It is
rather the supreme Sun which illumines the worlds, bathing
them all in his own glory. The subtle reversal of the imagery
in the very same vision thus becomes evident.

 

31
akhyahi me ko bhavan ugrarupo
namo 'stu te devavara prasida
vijnatum ichchhami bhavantam adyam
na hi prajanami tava pravrittim

Tell me who You are, so fierce in form; I bow to You,
0 superior God; Be gracious! I want to understand You,
0 Prime One, nor do I know Your(positive) continued becoming.

 

The limit of the vision is reached in this verse in which
it is only a mark of interrogation and exclamation that remains
for Arjuna. The Absolute is still to be known. The vision
only covers aspects of the Absolute, beginning from the
ontological and leading up through the teleological to a
notion that culminates in a tremendous mystery beyond
which it is evidently impossible to reach through visions
and descriptions. Arjuna is left in bewilderment, even at the
end of the most direct of visions that could possibly be
described.

 

32
Sribhagavan uvacha
kalo 'smi lokakshayakrit pravriddho
lokan samahartum iha pravrittah
rite 'pi tvam na bhavishyanti sarve
ye 'vasthitah pratyanikeshu yodhah

33
tasmat tvam uttishtha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunkshva rajyam samriddham,
mayai 'vai 'te nihatah purvam eva
nimittamatram bhava savyasachin

34
dronam cha bhishmam cha jayadratham cha
karnam tatha 'nyan api yodhaviran
maya hatams tvam jahi mi vyathishtha
yudhyasva jetasi rane sapatnan

491

Krishna said:
I am world-destroying Time, grown into hardened
maturity, operating here continuously, desolating
the worlds. Even without you, none of the warriors
standing in the opposing armies shall continue to
exist.

Therefore do you arise and gain fame. Conquering
your foes, enjoy the realm of abundance. By Me
even they have been already slain. Be you the inci-
dental cause only, 0 Left-handed One (savyasachin)
Arjuna).

Drona and Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna and other
great battle-heroes, these are all slain by Me. Do
not be distressed. Fight on, you shall conquer in
battle your rival (co-warriors).

 

These three verses coming from Krishna form a section of
their own and offer certain problems connected with the
teaching of the Gita.

There is apparently a definite incitement to war and
encouragement on the part of Krishna here. Many scholars,
especially those who have no religious affiliations to India,
have very pertinently put their finger on this most important
problem. It could be stated thus: "How could Krishna, who
represents the Absolute or God and thus goodness and the
highest of spiritual and ethical values, encourage warfare
in which the killing of fellow-men is involved?"
Various answers have been put forward by people, ranging
from mere religious apologists to philosophers, but the
vagueness that has surrounded this problem remains to
this day. We shall therefore scrutinize these verses very
closely for an answer consistent with the teaching of the
Gita as a whole. The following considerations could be
stated:
(1) Throughout the Gita, which is part of an epic poem,
there is a general background of warfare which comes into
evidence in such expressions describing Arjuna as
paramtapa (O Burner of Foes) and purusharshabha (O Bull
among Men). We might say therefore that the epic setting is
the canvas,

492

and that the Gita teaching itself is the painting which should
not be mixed up with the canvas. The incitement to war
therefore forms part of the natural or inevitable background
of the Gita, which Vyasa could not completely efface without
lifting the painting from its natural canvas.

(2) Arjuna himself is but one of the ordinary human characters
of the epic narrative. He has his own status outside the
wisdom-context as one of the Pandavas with his own interests
to safeguard. However much a man might be a philosopher,
there are human limitations to the reaction that a given
actual situation might have on an individual. Taking Arjuna
as a simple man among men, it is but natural that his
brother-in-law whom he loves and confides in intimately,
should advise him not to be a backslider when caught in the
imperative necessity of a war situation. As Narayana Guru
once put it briefly, Arjuna would have repented for not
fighting if he had retired from the battlefield in a moment
of philosophical confusion.

(3) We have noticed throughout that each chapter of the
Gita formed a close system of its own or darsana (special
vision of reality) and the consistency of statements in each
chapter had to be referred to its own proper frame of
reference and not crossways between two different visions
of reality.

We noticed further that in the earlier chapters which make
the anterior half of the book, the problem is approached in
a realistic spirit. For example, there was reference in ii,36
to the extreme distress that ill repute would bring to Arjuna
if he should run away from the battlefield. There are
situations in the necessary context of life in which it
is no more possible to make any choice between alternatives.
The vulgar name for such a force may be destiny or fate.
More respectable names for it would be providence or chance.
There is an element of determinism running side by side
with indeterminism in the nature of the physical, world, as
scientists recognize. Newton's laws hold good side by side
with Einstein's theories. The man who is caught in a surging
queue can hardly decide which way to move. A woman
advanced in pregnancy has hardly any choice whether to
give birth to a child or not. The imperative urge of
becoming has a force that has to be reckoned with,
especially when circumstances have become hardened around it.
A war situation represents exactly this kind of hardening.
This is what has been referred to in Verse 32 as pravriddhah

493

(grown into hard maturity). A benignant god is not implied
in this chapter. On the contrary Krishna says definitely that
he has come to destroy. We remember that Krishna in ix,
29, represented a neutral if not a benign personality. In v,
25, he pronounces himself as the friend of all beings.
The structure of the Gita is conceived in such a way that
if the earliest chapters are like the stones on one side of an
arch, tending to support it from the ground, the later
chapters have to perform the same function starting in
another direction. The role of the keystone is fulfilled by the
two central chapters. The present chapter comes after the
symmetrical centre of the arch has been passed, and in
keeping with the general scheme we can expect the
treatment here to be different from the central and earlier
chapters. The discussion in the earlier chapters centred
round a doubting Arjuna. Here in the later chapters, the
centre of interest is shifting degree by degree to Krishna
himself, as an actively positive and determining Godhead or
Providence. In fact such a tendency reaches its culmination
in xvi, 19, where he becomes an angry or chastising deity.
The Absolute is not to be looked upon as an impotent or
spent force. It is a virile and radical principle, sometimes
evident with a touch of tragic heroism. Creation is both
comic and tragic, benign and terrible, when viewed from its
own negative or positive side. The necessary and the
contingent aspects exchange positions, yielding primacy to
one or the other, depending on the angle from which reality
is viewed.

When all the different possible views about the Absolute
are put into one living whole as finally given to the intuition
of a wise man, that should represent reality; and this is what
the Gita attempts to accomplish. It is usual even on the part
of scholars to say that the Gita contradicts itself in numerous
places. In the light of the suggestion we have made here that
each chapter is a distinct darsana (vision of reality), and
that each has a general innate structure of its own, with its
own frame of reference, and that statements can tally strictly
only within the four walls of each chapter, the charge of
contradiction in the Gita would fall to the ground.
Further the oft-repeated saying that the Gita gives an
answer to any question of any man at any stage of life, which
cannot be a compliment to the definiteness of the Gita's
teaching, becomes understandable in a new light by which

494

the different statements fall into a certain organic and
symetrical order which the author has in mind.

(4) Coming to the philosophical content of these verses
we have the key-word when it is indicated by Krishna that he
represents kala (time). In earlier chapters and even in the
present chapter in Arjuna's words, the Absolute was
represented as being without beginning, middle or end. This
is not the same as pure duration. It is conceived in terms of
events belonging to the outer world, even when understood
as the ticking of a clock.

Krishna therefore refers to himself here as an irreversible,
inexorable factor of necessity in terms of the flow of
outward physical events. We see people dying as time, like
the great car of Jagganath, passes on. The imperative tragic
march of time is known to literature, especially to great
writers such as Shakespeare who speaks of a providence
that shapes our ends, or of a tide in the affairs of man. The
choice is "to be or not to be" and "to be" has necessarily to
be voted for. Such is the imperative nature of necessity in
which warlike or tragic heroes get caught. The jaws of time
hold them between its teeth as pictured earlier, with no
choice whatever between "to be" or "not to be". Such a
crude and harsh picture of war actualities subjected to a
contemplative vision of the first degree extends from Verse
9 to Verse 35 inclusive. These are brackets enclosing crude
actualities of the order of the first degree device of Samjaya.

(5) This stress on the necessary aspect of the Absolute,
though stated so unmistakably in this chapter and carefully
enclosed within the brackets of the first degree Samjaya
device, does not, however, compromise the philosophical
nature of the Gita as a whole. There are categoric statements
inserted throughout the chapters which retrieve it from such
a disastrous one-sided and fatalistic teaching. We shall refer
to them as we pass on.

 

The purushottama (supreme spirit) of Ch. xv.18 and 19, is above both necessity and contingency, as we shall see. en when speaking of the gunatraya (three specific natural factors) in xiv, 23, it is the man who takes a neutral position above necessity who is held up as an example, and not one who merely succumbs to necessity, however strong that necessity might be. The overall philosophical nature of the Gita is finally confirmed by the well-known Verse in xviii, 68.It is true that the primacy given to necessity continues unabated till Verse 35 of the present chapter, and continues in a more toned-down form, even up to xviii, 62, but finally we notice

 

 

495

that the tone again changes where it catches up with the
general spirit in which the Gita has been conceived by its
author as a whole. Finally, it is only the neutral Absolute and
the establishing of a bipolar relation with it that matters.
In answer then, to the major problem stated earlier, the
position reduces itself to this: besides the requirements of an
epic and consideration for the sentiments of a human
Arjuna, there is a simple recognition here of the need for
Arjuna to understand the imperative force of necessity in
which he happens to be caught without any choice. The
Absolute cannot reverse its own necessary laws, and one is
obliged to be part of it.

Freedom, however, remains in its own domain, unaffected
by any limitations of necessity. Krishna's role is not that
of a war-monger in the ordinary sense, but that of a wise
friend who is capable of appraising the situation in both
philosophical and actual terms. He is speaking here merely
as a representative of both the field and the knower of the
field, as explained in Chapter xiii, but this in no way affects
his own status as purushottama (the supreme spirit), that is,
as one who transcends this duality.

Verse 34 makes it clear that it is the possible regret of
Arjuna with which he is concerned. When the inevitable is
anyhow to win the battle for Arjuna, Arjuna is merely, as it
were, one swallow in relation to a summer as pointed out in 
 ii, 32. Even his fighting does not count because it is only
to be looked upon as incidental to the larger situation, as
stated in Verse 33.

To sum up, if one should ask for a pointed and simple answer
to the problem raised above, we could state that Krishna found
that Arjuna would lapse into regret later if he did not give
him the encouragement to play his natural role.

The negation of trying to live in a vacuum was the danger
that Krishna helped his friend successfully to avoid under
very special circumstances.

In Verse 32 the word kala (time) should not be understood
in pure terms, because of the reference to its active agency
in destroying the world. Arjuna wanted to know what the
active agency of the Absolute could be (at the end of Verse
31). The expression pravrittah (positive continued becoming)
must there fore refer to the same action implied in the
question. But pravriddhah (grown into hardened maturity)
implies that even

496

activity can have a more hardened manifestation in which
any flexibility, choice or adaptability to circumstances
becomes out of the question. Necessity clinches all
arguments.

The reference to the opposing armies in Verse 32 is different
from what is treated more dualistically in Verse 34 as
sapatnan (rival co-warriors). In Verse 32 the two parties
are referred to without distinction. The absence of Arjuna
would not make an appreciable difference to the situation
taken as a whole. Moreover the warriors are not referred to in 
ii, 32 as dying, but rather as na bhavishyanti (shall not be)
or as ceasing to exist.

The process of becoming should be visualized with both of its
aspects together. Life or food is referred to as living upon 
life or food itself in the Taittirya Upanishad (valli, iii).
Something like a Zeno paradox is presented here. Time
visualized, even objectively as here, is a process of ruthless
becoming, constituting the tragic problem of evil that has
never been explained away by any philosophy, however
idealistic.

 

In Verse 33 Arjuna is personally addressed in his own
individual interest. Philosophy is not allowed to cloud or
vitiate the commonsense issue involved. The necessary side
of life in its most pressing aspects is not to be and cannot
be brushed aside. Wisdom is not meant to cloud commonsense,
as in so many forms of vague opinion or religious piety. Both
wisdom and commonsense are complementary, and have their proper places, as developed and conclusively stated in xiii, 23 and
34.

 

The neutral attitude of the wise man results from the cancelling
out of the necessary against the contingent and not by giving
undue prominence to one or the other. Yoga theoretically amounts
to this.

 

The reference in Verse 33 to anticipatory killing could be looked
upon in two ways: first, that all objective existence, being
subject to change, has no intrinsic existence in the eternal;
and secondly that evil, being based on something false and
non-existent, has no proper being as such. A bad man is already
dead. Good men approximate to values that are eternal, and
bad men to the extent that they are bad may in principle be said
to have already perished. The yasha (fame) must be construed here
to mean fame based on something real or good, and likewise rajyam
samriddham (realm of abundance of goods) need not necessarily refer to that particular kingdom that Arjuna can legalistically claim.
It might refer more generally to the way that leads to a more
abundant life.

 

 

497

Nimittamatram (incidental cause only) should also be understood
with its logical implications. Taking the familiar example
of a potter at his wheel, the clay he uses is the material
cause which is of a fundamental nature. The potter and the
wheel could vary according to circumstances. The particular
potter does not count, nor the particular pattern of the wheel.
These are often distinguished in India as upadana (the material
cause) and nimitta (the efficient cause) respectively.
The potter and wheel are merely instrumental, or of incidental
importance only, varying according to circumstances. Arjuna here
as a person is therefore just an incidental factor in a larger
situation that is given; he is only being reminded of this verity.
Whether the reference in Verse 33 to savyasachin (left-
handed one) is intended to reflect discredit on Arjuna is not
quite clear, but according to Sankara the word can be
interpreted as referring to the ambidextrous skill of Arjuna
rather than his being merely left-handed.

In Verse 34 specific names are mentioned. Although all of
them are to be feared, they are by no means the worst
examples of bad men ranged against Arjuna's side. Why
therefore specific reference should be made to such good
teachers and warriors of worth is a relevant question. They
represent superior values in themselves, even outside the mere
context of warfare, as we have already pointed out early in
this work. The spirituality imparted to Arjuna now, being
thoroughly absolutist in its character, supersedes every other
value, however esteemed it might have been till now in the
anterior context of the Mahabharata war. Therefore the
specific mention of these names must be intended to point out
the superiority of the revalued spirituality of Krishna which is
now Arjuna's also. Karna and Jayadratha are warriors who
hold secret weapons or boons of a divine nature. Drona
represents values implicit in Vedic ritualism, and Bhishma is
a patriarch and model of a man of abnegation and chastity.
The expression ma vyathishtha (be not distressed) refers to
any possible hesitation remaining in the attitude of Arjuna
even after the explanation given, more particularly in regard
to the Gurus (teachers) such as Drona and Bhishma. It does not
recommend ruthless or pitiless killing as some loose
translators would seem to imply.

In the last line Krishna is not deteriorating into a fortune-
teller. In keeping with the Upanishadic dictum that truth alone
prevails, the meaning is to be construed in comprehensive

498

terms, rather than as referring to the incidental
personalities involved. An absolutist victor, as Arjuna is
recommended here to be, need not even know the names of
his individual rivals. He is not to think of them
relativistically as acquaintances belonging to narrow or
limited contexts.

The expression sapatnan (rivals) so reminiscent of sapatna
(co-wife of a common husband), would seem to suggest that
there is at least one interest common between them and
Arjuna, while in certain other matters the interests
clash. It is the final truth that should prevail as against
any parties dualistically understood, whatever their status.

 

35
Samjaya uvacha
etach chhrutva vachanam kesavasya
kritanjalir vepamanah kiriti
namaskritva bhuya eva 'ha krishnam
sagadgadam bhitabhitah pranamya

Samjaya said
Having heard that speech of Kesava (Krishna) the Diademed One
(Arjuna) with worshipfully joined palms, trembling, inclining
himself again before Krishna, with emotional stuttering, in
sustained fear, bowing down, spoke.

 

The intervention of Samjaya here is perhaps intended to
punctuate the climax of the vision that has been reached as
Krishna describes his own form. The vision itself was lifted
somewhat out of the human context and, having fulfilled its
purpose, had to be discarded for the continuation of the
theme of the Gita again from a more human standpoint.
Samjaya, therefore, brings in his religious note wherein there
is Arjuna in a crisis of emotion, unable to pronounce his
words with clarity, sagadgadam (with emotional stuttering).
He is even said to be prostrating completely, cowed down
with an abject form of fear, bhitabhitah (in sustained fear).
This is not at all in keeping with the self-respect of a warrior.
The conventional picture of a supplicating worshipper here
might be in place in a Puranic (legendary) religious setting,
or perhaps when a seeker of wisdom finds the Guru's teaching
too much for him. Whatever may be the consideration here,
Samjaya's words are meant to punctuate the climax of the vision.

499

36
Arjuna uvacha
sthane hrishikesa tava prakirtya
jagat prahrishyaty anurajyate
cha rakshamsi bhutani diso dravanti
sarve namasyanti cha siddhasamghah

Arjuna said:
0 Hrishikesa (Krishna), it is but right that the world
is delighted in praising You, that demons fly in fear
to every quarter, and (that) all hosts of perfected
ones bow in adoration to You.

 

Verses 36 to 43 contain Arjuna's words in the form of a
panegyric of exalted devotion. The awe-inspiring picture is
abandoned in favour of a state of world rejoicing as
indicated by jagat prahrishyate (the world rejoices). Only
the rakshasas (demons) are terrified. The siddhas (beings
perfected through psychic discipline) take a worshipful
attitude. There is a return to conventional scales of values
and devotion in the sense of ordinary bhakti (adoration).
We thus approach the vision once again from the more
human standpoint. We notice here also that Arjuna speaks
with a certain authority of his own, even as a philosopher, in
the next verse.

 

37
kasmach cha te na nameran mahatman
gariyase brahmano 'py adikartre
ananta devesa jagannivasa
tvam aksharam sad asat tatparamyat

And why should they not bow to You, 0 Great Self, more
venerable even than Brahma the first maker, 0 Endless God of
gods, Basis of the Universe! You are the Imperishable One,
Existence and Non-Existence, and What is beyond (even) that.

 

Although starting conventionally, Arjuna here transcends
conventional limits altogether and by using sad-asat
(existence and non-existence) together, again reaches the
highest point in Vedantic philosophical speculation. The
reference to the Absolute as being greater than Brahma
himself, who is the first creator, lifts the vision above the
level of theology. The reference to the Absolute as the basis
of the whole universe and as tatparam yat (that which is
beyond) brings together two extreme aspects of the vision
that we have noticed in Verse 28.

500

38
tvam adidevah purushah puranas
tvam asya visvasya param nidhanam
vetta 'si vedyam cha param cha dhama
tvaya tatam visvam anantarupa

You are the first of the gods and the Ancient Spirit
You are the Supreme Basis of the Universe ; You are both the
Knower and the Knowable; You are the (transcendent) Beyond
and the (immanent) Receptacle (here); the universe is pervaded
by You, 0 One (capable) of Limitless Form!

 

The same mixed imagery in which ontological factors alternate
with the hypothetical, continues. The references to vetta 'si
vedyam cha (the knower and the knowable) and also to param
(the transcendent beyond), i.e., the hypothetical, and to
dhama (basis) here and now, i.e., ontological, in pairs
together, mark the synthetic style adopted.

 

39
vayur yamo 'gnir varunah sasankah
prajapatis tvam prapitamahas cha
namo namas te 'stu sahasrakritvah
punas cha bhuyo 'pi namo namas te

You are Vayu (wind deity), Yama (death deity), Agni
(fire deity), Varuna (sea deity), Sasanka (lunar deity),
Prajapati (first of progenitors) and the Great-grand-sire;
Hail! Hail to You! A thousand times and again, Hail!
Hail to You!

 

The juxtaposition here of the idea of Prajapati (first of
progenitors) and prapitamaha (great-grandsire) is unusual.
Any one of them would have sufficed normally, but the two
epithets are intended to fuse the Vedic cosmology with the
tradition of ancestor-worship.

 

40
namah purastad atha prishthatas te
namo 'stu te sarvata eva sarva
ananta viryamita vikramas tvam
sarvam samapnoshi tato 'si sarvah

501

Prostrations to You before and after; prostrations to You
on every side; 0 All, of endless potency and immeasurable
strength; You terminate all, then You become all!

 

The prostrations in the first line, before and after, may
refer to the time-dimensional aspect of the Absolute, and the
prostrations in the second line to points in space.
The reference to virya (potent power) has to be distinguished
from vikrama (overt strength). Potency is what comes into
effect through duration, while overt strength expresses itself
at a given moment in all directions like a bomb that bursts.
Or the difference can be said to be something like that
between a snake and a tiger.

The two expressions samapnoshi (you bring to conclusion) and
tato 'si sarvah (so you are all) must also be understood as
implying the same contrast between time and space. There is
a subtle interrelation between time and space implied here

 

41
sakhe 'ti matva Prasabham yad uktam
he krishna he yadava he sakhe 'ti
ajanata mahimanam tave 'dam
maya pramadat pranayena va 'pi

42
yach chi 'vahasartham asatkrito 'ti
vihara sayyasana bhojaneshu
eko 'thava 'py achyuta tatsamaksham
tat kshamaye tvam aham aprameyam

Whatever I have said rashly from carelessness or
fondness, addressing You as "0 Krishna, 0 Yadava,
0 Comrade" thinking of You as an intimate and ignorant
of this Your greatness,

and for whatever jesting irreverence I may have shown You,
whether at play, reposing, or seated, or at meals, either
when remaining by myself, or when You were present, that
I ask, 0 Achyuta (Krishna), to forgive, 0 Unpredicable One!

 

The section covering Verses 41 to 46 alludes to various
forms of devotional or bhakti (adoration) relationship
extant or possible. This is to be dealt with on its own in
the next chapter.

502

The review of the different varieties in this section must be
by way of preparation, and to contrast them with that single
type of devotion recommended in the last verse of this
chapter, and throughout the Gita generally.

The method of the Gita is never to condemn a lower form
of ritual worship or devotion in opposition to the highest
form recommended, but always to treat them hand in hand.
Various forms of sacrifice and Yoga have been similarly
covered in the earlier chapters, without decreasing the
stress on the best form recommended at the end of each
discussion (see iv. 23-32 and also chapter vi.).

The Puranic (religious, legendary) type of devotion was
reflected in Samjaya's speech in Verse 35. Arjuna's own
pattern of worship conforms to what may be described as
that of an upasana-murti (worship of a fixed form for
purposes of ritual offering) of the four-armed Vishnu.
This predilection is sufficiently evident from Verse 17
of this chapter, again repeated in verse 46. But within
the limitations of such a conventional worship, Arjuna is
capable of thinking of different varieties of affiliation
to the Absolute which are correct even in the light of the
canonical text-books likely to have been known to him. But
the Gita as a sastra (canonical text-book) sets its own
standard of devotion which is higher than the conventional.
In Verses 41 and 42 wrong or accidental relationships
possible outside the context of contemplation are all
referred to, with a view to their elimination in establishing
the proper relationship to be described later.

The reference to Yadava is one based on Arjuna's marital
relationship with the clan to which Krishna belonged. This
is but one example of the miscellaneous nature of Arjuna's
relations implied in these epithets.

The phrase tatsamaksham (when you were present) often
translated "in the presence of others" has been so translated
because the relation between Krishna and Arjuna is the
chief subject-matter throughout.

The detailed references to play, repose, seated at meals,
are to show that there are various moments in our everyday
life which are casual and incidental in which one might not
be properly related to the Absolute as recommended in v, 9
and 10 The pardon here prayed for by Arjuna is really for
his acts of omission in conforming to the pattern of life
of a true contemplative in his odd moments.

503

43
pita 'si lokasya characharasya
tvam asya pujyas cha gurur gariyan
na tvatsamo 'sty abhyadhikoh kuto 'nyo
lokatraye 'py apratimaprabhava

You are the Father of the world, of the moving and unmoving;
You are to be reverenced by this (world) and (are) the
supreme Guru; none is Your equal; how then could there be
one greater than You, even in the three worlds, 0 One of
incomparable greatness!

 

The father-son and the guru-sishya (teacher-disciple)
relationships are mentioned here. Krishna is referred to as
the one who has no equal and as the highest to be reverenced.
The attitude is therefore one of intense unitive affiliation
to the Absolute as far as Arjuna is able to understand.

 

44
tasmat pranamya pranidhaya kayam
prasadaye tvam aham isam idyam
pite 'va putrasya sakhe 'va sakhyuh
priyah priyaya 'rhasi deva sodhum

Therefore bowing down and prostrating my body, I seek Your
grace, 0 adorable Lord; (it is but proper that) You, O God,
should bear with me, as father to son, as friend to friend,
as lover to beloved.

 

Bhakti (devotion) in such writings as the Narada Bhakti
Sutras (Verses on Devotion by the Sage Narada) is said to
have different modes. There are, for instance, the dasya
bhava (servant attitude), the asrita bhava (refugee attitude)
and the suhrid bhava (friendly attitude). Coupling worshipper
and worshipped into one situation conforms to a correct
contemplative approach to devotion which cannot be understood
unilaterally. Hence the references here to father-son, etc.,
are very apt, though coming from Arjuna only.

 

45
adrishtapurvam hrishito 'smi drishtva
bhayena cha pravyathitam mano me
tad eva me darsaya deva rupam
prasida devesa jagannivasa

504

46
kiritinam gadinam chakrahastam
ichchhami tvam drashtum aham tathai 'va
tenai 'va rupena chaturbhujena
sahasrabaho bhava visvamurte

I am glad, having seen what has never been seen by anyone
before, and my mind is troubled with fear; show me that
very form, 0 God; be pleased, 0 God of gods, 0 Abode of
the Universe;

I want to see You even so, diademed, with mace and discus
in Your hand; assume that very form with four Arms,
0 Thousand-armed, O One of Universal Form!

 

Arjuna here speaks of both fear and gladness at the same
time. Every devotee in his position has to draw the line
between the picture of the Absolute that he can bear and
what is natural to his own previous conditioning. A more
philosophic temperament would perhaps be able to
approximate nearer to an abstract or unconditioned idea of
the Absolute. This largely depends upon temperament and
conditionings depending on each individual.

In keeping with Arjuna's own conditioning, he asks for the
more comforting form of the four-armed Vishnu. He plainly
confesses that the multiplicity of arms and the protean
character of the possible shapes that Krishna is capable of
assuming is too much for him. Arjuna's devotion thus gains
here stable ground again.

 

47
Sribhagavan uvacha
maya prasannena tava 'rjune 'dam
rupam param darsitam atmayogat
tejomayam visvam anantam adyam
yan me tvadanyena na drishtapurvam

Krishna said:
By My favour, 0 Arjuna, this supreme form has been shown,
by the Yoga pertaining to the Self, made up of light,
universal, endless, primal, never before seen by any
other than yourself.

505

In this section of three verses (47 to 49) Krishna examines the
nature of the vision in his own words from his own standpoint
and says, as he has said already and will repeat again, that
the vision is far superior to what is possible through the
Vedas, sacrifices, studies, gifts, rituals and austerity. It
is a culminating vision of the Absolute as revalued and
restated for the first time by Krishna himself. He stresses
the supreme value of such a vision and resumes his normal
form as a human being.

The term atmayogat (through the Yoga pertaining to the Self)
in this verse, refers to the distinguishing feature of the
vision according to Krishna, which should be understood
side by side with the epithets mahatman (great Self) and
yogesvarayogi) which occur in this chapter and
elsewhere. The Absolute is appraised most directly in terms
of the Self, and this truth has already been mentioned in x,
15.

The favour conferred on Arjuna consists of allowing him
to place himself as Krishna's own Self, and thus help him in
having a vision that is superior to all other approaches.
Atma-yogat (through the Yoga pertaining to the Self) is a
new approach different from other theological or
cosmological approaches known generally.

 

48
na vedayajna dhyayanair na danair
na cha kriyabhir na tapobhir ugraih
evamrupah sakya aham nriloke
drashtum tvadanyena kurupravira

Neither by the Vedas, sacrifices, nor by study, nor by gifts,
nor by ritual, nor by severe austerities, can I possibly be
seen in such a form in the human world, by anyone other than
you, 0 Hero of the Kurus (Arjuna).

 

The reference here to nriloka (the human world) admits
that the vision hitherto described is not normally given to
men. Arjuna alone has this unique favour through Krishna.
This brings out the verity so well known in Indian
spirituality that no knowledge is valid without a guru.
True vision of the Absolute comes only by the cancelling
out of two counterparts, one represented by the disciple and
the other by the teacher. Being essentially dialectical,
absolutist wisdom cannot be reached by any one-legged
argument, by ratiocination or eristic forms of reasoning, or
any such one-sided methods, all of which fall short of the
mark as far as the truth of contemplative wisdom is concerned.

506

As the Gita is never tired of repeating, this underlines
further, as seen in Verse 53 later, that the hitherto usually
recognized approaches to wisdom do not reach that
culminating point implied in the finalized doctrine of the
Gita.

 

49
ma te vyatha ma cha vimudhabhavo
drishtva rupam ghoram idrin mame'dam
vyapetabhih pritamanah punas tvam
tad eva me rupam idam prapasya

Be not distressed, do not be confused, having seen such
a terrible form of Mine; free from fear, mentally
comforted, again behold that very form of Mine (presently)
here.

 

This verse consoles Arjuna, but definitely admits that the
terrible form did not fit in with the normal human context.
There was a harsh and specialized quality which belonged
perhaps, according to Krishna, to the context of war in
which Arjuna was involved. Krishna would perhaps have
avoided showing this terrible aspect if it had not been for
the hard actualities of warfare which made such a vision,
though somewhat abnormal, necessary all the same. It is
further suggested indirectly that visions and ecstatic states
properly belong to the field of abnormal psychology. The
reference to the human world in the previous verse would
support such a view.

Tad eva me rupam (even that form of Mine) is construed
by Sankara as meaning the four-armed Vishnu. Sankara's
introduction to the Gita itself refers to Vishnu as being
born as the son of Vasudeva, to preserve order and protect
brahmanical values. For our part we do not see why here,
in the absence of any reference to a return to a non-human
four-armed form, such a construction should be given. We
see that Arjuna in Verse 51 refers to manusham rupam (the
human form) which normally should be the antecedent of
the present reference.

Sankara's Puranic (religious legendary) predilections
must be responsible for dragging in the four-armed Vishnu
form into a context where it is absent and unnecessary. This
attitude of Sankara goes well with his condoning of and
conniving at the injustices involved in caste which we had
occasion to point out already.

507

The reference to Vasudeva as a historical person and to
Krishna being born as an avatar (incarnation from on high)
of Vishnu, even if they should have any validity, hold no
direct interest to the modern man who wants to get at the
root of the Gita teaching as a universal textbook. That the
Bhagavata doctrine of vyuha and the Puranic idea of the ten
avatars are both foreign to the Gita has already been
pointed out under Verse 17 earlier.

 

50
Samjaya uvacha
ity arjunam vasudevas latho 'ktva
svakam rupam darsayam asa bhuyah
asvasayam asa cha bhitam enam
bhutva punah saumyavapur mahatma

Samjaya said:
Having thus spoken to Arjuna, Vasudeva (Krishna) again
showed his own form and the Great Self, becoming mild
in form, consoled him who was terrified.

 

Samjaya's words are meant to close the brackets, as it
were, around the parenthesis of the terrible vision which
was introduced into the Gita to meet the gross requirements
of a war situation. Samjaya makes his appearance again only
at the end of the book.

 

51
Arjuna uvacha
drishtve 'dam manusham rupam
tava saumyam janardana
idanim asmi samvrittah
sachetah prakritim,gatah

Arjuna said:
Beholding again this Your mild human form, 0 Janardana
(Krishna), I am now calm, with the living mind restored to
its natural state.

 

Beginning from this verse to the end of the chapter there
is an absence of the exaltation produced by the vision, and
Krishna and Arjuna continue the dialogue, standing, as it
were, off-stage.

508

The expression sachetah (with the living mind regained)
suggests that Arjuna has recovered from the exaggerated
after-effects of the vision that was too much for him. He is
conscious of his own personality and normal relationships
as an intelligent and responsible living man.

 

52
Sribhagavan uvacha
sudurdarsam idam rupam
drishtavan asi yan mama
deva apy asya rupasya
nityam darsanakankshinah

Krishna said:
This form of Mine which you have seen is very hard to see
indeed; even the gods ever aspire to behold this form.

 

By saying that even the gods are aspiring for the vision
that Arjuna as a mere human being has had the privilege of
seeing, the status of the Absolute as representing the vision
is raised far above the scope and context of religion
altogether. It must be thought of as being of a highly
mystical or contemplative order.

The expression nityam (ever, always) implies that the
gods can never attain to such a high vision, even if they
should wait for all time. The vision is therefore completely
outside the scope of the theological context to which the
gods belong.

 

53
na 'ham vedair na tapasa
na danena na che 'jyayi
sakya evamvidho drashtum
drishtavan asi mam yatha

Not by Vedas, nor by austerity, nor by gifts, nor by
sacrifice, can I be seen in this form as you have seen Me.

 

This is a repetition of Verse 48 and rejects categorically
all approaches to the vision of the Absolute by religious
methods such as here enumerated.

 

54
bhaktya tv ananyaya sakya
aham evamvidho 'rjuna
jnatum drashtum cha lattvena
praveshtum cha paramtapa

But by devotion that excludes all else, 0 Arjuna, I
can be known, seen, and in principle entered into,
Paramtapa (Arjuna).

509

The way that will surely succeed, not only in producing the
full effect but also in comprehending the full import of
the vision is stated here without ambiguity. This touches the
central doctrine of the Gita, expressed in various ways
throughout the work, in the familiar form of "you shall even
attain to Me".

The attaining here referred to has implications of an
absolutist nature which it would be wrong to overlook.
There is always implied in such instances an identity or
unity of a very thorough character as between the seeker and
the wisdom of the Absolute. Such references by no means
suggest the weak variety of bhakti (devotion), which mostly
consists of clashing cymbals, bell-ringings and parrot-like
muttering of mantrams (sacred syllables). But of course
such practices have their justification, in so far as they
displace worse practices.

The expression ananyaya (to the exclusion of all else) referred
to in viii, 22 and ix, 22, is to secure for the superior
type of devotion meant here, that necessary bipolar condition.
The reference to tattvena (according to principle) also touches
another prerequisite of a proper affiliation to the Absolute,
also insisted on in iv, 9, vii, 3, x, 7, and xviii, 55, and to
be considered as part of the finalized doctrine of the Gita.

The idea of entering into the Absolute indicated by the
word praveshtum (to enter) is also a favourite form of
expression in the Gita. Attaining, reaching or entering into
the Absolute, can only suggest a form of unification between
the subject and the object, the worshipper and the
worshipped. When Krishna says that such and such a devotee
is dear and would reach him surely, it is this same kind of
union which is implied.

Thus something more than a mere vision is promised here by
Krishna, if Arjuna could establish that particular kind of
bipolar affiliation which forms, as we have said, part of the
finalized doctrine of the Gita.

510

55
matkarmakrin matparamo
madbhaktah sangavarjitah
nirvairah sarvabhuteshu
yah sa mam eti pandava

He who does actions that are Mine, whose Supreme is Myself,
whose devotion is to Me, devoid of attachment, free from
enmity to all beings, he reaches Me, 0 Pandava (Arjuna).

 

By way of conclusion there is a summing up of approaches to
the Absolute which refer backwards to subjects such as karma
(action) already covered in earlier chapters. The reference
to bhakti (devotion) brings the subject up to the present,
leading up to the next chapter. The expression matparamah
(having Me as the supreme) is peculiar to the style of the
Gita, in the same way as machchittah (with their relational
mind in Me) in vi, 14, x, 9, and xviii, 57 and 58. Other
expressions like madgataprana (their life-tendencies
penetrating into Me) of x, 9, express clearly what is in
the mind of the author, when such seemingly strained
expressions have to be resorted to by him. Intimate bipolar
relationship between the factors involved in each case
should be clearly understood if the Gita doctrine is to
be grasped in the form intended by the author.

The reference to nirvairah (without enmity) seems an anti-
climax to the chapter as a whole, which has been geared to
war-mindedness and even to the recommendation of slaying
of foes. But when we consider the parenthetical character of
the vision, as we have explained, and remember that the Gita
intends hereafter to proceed more normally, the reference to
lack of enmity becomes understandable. Read together with
the other expression sangavarjitah (devoid of attachment),
the treatment attains the usual contemplative level.
These two references compensate for any over-emphasis
on the harsh or necessary aspects of the Absolute that may
still linger in the mind of Arjuna or of any student of the
Gita. Hard necessity was recognized and given due place in
the highly realistic vision which could not omit hard facts
of evil that form the inevitable counterpart of an existence
included in an all-inclusive unitive view. Existence is not
always harsh and therefore the rest of the Gita continues in
a more normal style.

511

The next chapter passes on to the question of the Unitive
Contemplation of the Absolute.

ity srimad bhagavadgitasupanishatsu brahmavidyayam
yogasastre srikrishnarjunasamvade
visvarupadarsanayogo namai 'kidaso 'dhayah

Thus ends in the Upanishads of the Songs of God, in the Science
of the Wisdom of the Absolute, in the Dialogue between Sri
Krishna and Arjuna, the Eleventh Chapter entitled Unitive Vision
of the Absolute.