CHAPTER X
The Divine Glories
In any text-book of a systematic exposition of thought, later chapters will have their roots in earlier ones, and the continuity of narration in and the consistency of development of the themes are both unavoidable. Although these chapters are named separately, and therefore look almost completely independent of one another, there is an imperceptible matrix of ideas holding them all together. Viewed thus, this chapter may be traced back to some dozen different verses in different earlier chapters. Of them, the most predominant and striking source is the stanza in the seventh chapter (VII-6) wherein, after describing the Higher and the Lower Nature of the Eternal, the Lord concludes "I AM THE ORIGIN AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE"; and therefore, he adds, "BEYOND ME THERE IS NAUGHT. ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME, AS A ROW OF JEWELS IN A THREAD" (VII-6, 7).
Similarly, although Krishna, as the Self, Eternal and All-pervading, is the Source of all names and forms, He has to indicate to Arjuna His exact place and worth in the comity of things and beings in the Universe.
This chapter is called the Vibhuti yoga inasmuch as it describes (a) the Power or Lordship, and (b) the Pervasive-ness, or Immanence of the Self. The Self is the Essence in the world of plurality as described in this chapter; therefore, we find Krishna indicating Himself both as (1) the most prominent and Chief Factor in all classes of beings, and (2) as that Supreme Factor without which specimens belonging to each class cannot maintain themselves as existent beings. We shall notice these as we dissect the stanzas one by one to discover their individual contents.
In this chapter, we discover that Arjuna feels extremely inspired when he gets re-educated in his knowledge of the Vedas, through the sparkling words of Lord Krishna. The teacher in Krishna confesses that He Himself feels encouraged by Arjuna's happiness, and therefore, this chapter is added.
In this chapter Arjuna enquires of Krishna as to how one can constantly keep in touch with the Eternal aspect of Truth, even while one is perceiving the pluralistic world and transacting with its objects (X-17). As an answer to this particular question, the rest of the chapter is packed with indications of the joyous Infinite among the joyless finite objects.
However, the chapter concludes with a cry of despair on the part of Krishna which drives home to Arjuna, the impossibility of a teacher ever exhausting the analysis of all the things and beings in the world, and indicating in each the glorious spirit, both as separate and yet not separate from matter. No electrical engineer can ever hope to exhaust all the bulbs and fans and other electrical equipments in the world, one by one, to indicate to a student of Electrical Engineering what exactly constitutes, in each, the equipment as separate from the electrical current. The chapter concludes: "OF WHAT AVAIL IS IT TO YOU TO KNOW ALL THESE DIVERSITIES? I EXIST SUPPORTING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE BY A PORTION OF MYSELF."
In Vedanta, the Self, seemingly conditioned by, or reflected in, or functioning through, THE INDIVIDUAL MIND-AND-INTELLECT is the ego (Jiva), limited and thwarted by its own imperfections. While, the same Eternal Self, conditioned by, reflected in, or functioning through, THE TOTAL MIND-AND-INTELLECT is the God-principle (Ishwara), unlimited and ever a Master of its own Perfection. If once this idea of the Self, as seen through the individual-mind and the cosmic-mind, is understood properly, both the chapters X and XI become amply self-evident and self-explanatory.
In the tradition of democracy, the concept of a Government or the idea of a nation should give us a healthy analogy with which we can vaguely comprehend to a certain extent, the entire suggestiveness underlying this ancient Vedantic concept of the God-principle. In democracy with adult franchise, every grown-up member of society has his vote to express his will and he alone can come up to govern the country who represents, in himself, the will of the majority. Such an individual may be considered as one who has identified himself with the will of the largest number of the people in that nation during that particular period of its history. One, who has been thus elected to govern, will have to rule the nation according to the demands of the people. The Government is thus created out of the powers and rights surrendered to a central pool by each individual; yet, once a Government is formed, it is very well-known, how the Governors become mightier than those governed!
I, the Self, identifying with my limited intellect and mind, become the mortal ego, bound and conditioned on all sides; while I, the Self identifying with the Total-Mind-and-Intellect become the Mighty and Powerful, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God-principle, constituting in Myself the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu), and the Annihilator (Maheshwara).
It is a matter of common experience that our world gets coloured by the condition of our minds. When we are happy, the world, to us, is a dance-hall of light and laughter, mirth and happiness, while the same world becomes a miserable dungeon of agony and tears when our mental conditions change. Also, in each one of us, our world of success and joy, or of misery and sorrow becomes completely and totally extinct whenever we are in the state of deep-sleep --- meaning, whenever our mind-intellect-equipment does not function. Classifying all these observations, it can be enunciated that "as the mind, so is the world, and where there is no mind, there is no world."
Thus, I create my world with my mind; you create your world with your mind; and he creates his world with his mind. No doubt, into the pool of my world, certain aspects and portions of the world of others creep in to overlap, for varying periods of time. Philosophically viewed, therefore, the total world of forms and beings is created, sustained, and destroyed by the number of minds totally available to cognize and to experience this whole Universe. This Total-mind includes, in itself, even the rudimentary perceptions of a 'mind' in the plant kingdom, the relatively better-developed minds and intellects of the animal kingdom, and also the well-developed mind of man. When the theory of the God-principle, as propounded by Vedanta, is understood completely, it appeals to the faculty of reasoning in all intelligent creatures.
The implications of this theory are vast. It not only proves and explains the omniscience and the omnipotence of God but it also lends a comprehensible import to the term generally employed in describing the Supreme as "The Lord of the Universe" (Sarva loka maheshwarah).
While listening to this discourse, Arjuna seems to have lost himself in an experience bordering upon the transcendental. This preparation, given to Arjuna, provides a necessary mental elevation in cosmic self-expansion, without which the special power of cognition to experience the concept of the Cosmic-Man as described in the following chapter would never have been possible.
|| Chapter-10 ||
Source: The Holy Geeta
The Divine Glories
In any text-book of a systematic exposition of thought, later chapters will have their roots in earlier ones, and the continuity of narration in and the consistency of development of the themes are both unavoidable. Although these chapters are named separately, and therefore look almost completely independent of one another, there is an imperceptible matrix of ideas holding them all together. Viewed thus, this chapter may be traced back to some dozen different verses in different earlier chapters. Of them, the most predominant and striking source is the stanza in the seventh chapter (VII-6) wherein, after describing the Higher and the Lower Nature of the Eternal, the Lord concludes "I AM THE ORIGIN AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE"; and therefore, he adds, "BEYOND ME THERE IS NAUGHT. ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME, AS A ROW OF JEWELS IN A THREAD" (VII-6, 7).
Similarly, although Krishna, as the Self, Eternal and All-pervading, is the Source of all names and forms, He has to indicate to Arjuna His exact place and worth in the comity of things and beings in the Universe.
This chapter is called the Vibhuti yoga inasmuch as it describes (a) the Power or Lordship, and (b) the Pervasive-ness, or Immanence of the Self. The Self is the Essence in the world of plurality as described in this chapter; therefore, we find Krishna indicating Himself both as (1) the most prominent and Chief Factor in all classes of beings, and (2) as that Supreme Factor without which specimens belonging to each class cannot maintain themselves as existent beings. We shall notice these as we dissect the stanzas one by one to discover their individual contents.
In this chapter, we discover that Arjuna feels extremely inspired when he gets re-educated in his knowledge of the Vedas, through the sparkling words of Lord Krishna. The teacher in Krishna confesses that He Himself feels encouraged by Arjuna's happiness, and therefore, this chapter is added.
In this chapter Arjuna enquires of Krishna as to how one can constantly keep in touch with the Eternal aspect of Truth, even while one is perceiving the pluralistic world and transacting with its objects (X-17). As an answer to this particular question, the rest of the chapter is packed with indications of the joyous Infinite among the joyless finite objects.
However, the chapter concludes with a cry of despair on the part of Krishna which drives home to Arjuna, the impossibility of a teacher ever exhausting the analysis of all the things and beings in the world, and indicating in each the glorious spirit, both as separate and yet not separate from matter. No electrical engineer can ever hope to exhaust all the bulbs and fans and other electrical equipments in the world, one by one, to indicate to a student of Electrical Engineering what exactly constitutes, in each, the equipment as separate from the electrical current. The chapter concludes: "OF WHAT AVAIL IS IT TO YOU TO KNOW ALL THESE DIVERSITIES? I EXIST SUPPORTING THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE BY A PORTION OF MYSELF."
In Vedanta, the Self, seemingly conditioned by, or reflected in, or functioning through, THE INDIVIDUAL MIND-AND-INTELLECT is the ego (Jiva), limited and thwarted by its own imperfections. While, the same Eternal Self, conditioned by, reflected in, or functioning through, THE TOTAL MIND-AND-INTELLECT is the God-principle (Ishwara), unlimited and ever a Master of its own Perfection. If once this idea of the Self, as seen through the individual-mind and the cosmic-mind, is understood properly, both the chapters X and XI become amply self-evident and self-explanatory.
In the tradition of democracy, the concept of a Government or the idea of a nation should give us a healthy analogy with which we can vaguely comprehend to a certain extent, the entire suggestiveness underlying this ancient Vedantic concept of the God-principle. In democracy with adult franchise, every grown-up member of society has his vote to express his will and he alone can come up to govern the country who represents, in himself, the will of the majority. Such an individual may be considered as one who has identified himself with the will of the largest number of the people in that nation during that particular period of its history. One, who has been thus elected to govern, will have to rule the nation according to the demands of the people. The Government is thus created out of the powers and rights surrendered to a central pool by each individual; yet, once a Government is formed, it is very well-known, how the Governors become mightier than those governed!
I, the Self, identifying with my limited intellect and mind, become the mortal ego, bound and conditioned on all sides; while I, the Self identifying with the Total-Mind-and-Intellect become the Mighty and Powerful, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God-principle, constituting in Myself the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu), and the Annihilator (Maheshwara).
It is a matter of common experience that our world gets coloured by the condition of our minds. When we are happy, the world, to us, is a dance-hall of light and laughter, mirth and happiness, while the same world becomes a miserable dungeon of agony and tears when our mental conditions change. Also, in each one of us, our world of success and joy, or of misery and sorrow becomes completely and totally extinct whenever we are in the state of deep-sleep --- meaning, whenever our mind-intellect-equipment does not function. Classifying all these observations, it can be enunciated that "as the mind, so is the world, and where there is no mind, there is no world."
Thus, I create my world with my mind; you create your world with your mind; and he creates his world with his mind. No doubt, into the pool of my world, certain aspects and portions of the world of others creep in to overlap, for varying periods of time. Philosophically viewed, therefore, the total world of forms and beings is created, sustained, and destroyed by the number of minds totally available to cognize and to experience this whole Universe. This Total-mind includes, in itself, even the rudimentary perceptions of a 'mind' in the plant kingdom, the relatively better-developed minds and intellects of the animal kingdom, and also the well-developed mind of man. When the theory of the God-principle, as propounded by Vedanta, is understood completely, it appeals to the faculty of reasoning in all intelligent creatures.
The implications of this theory are vast. It not only proves and explains the omniscience and the omnipotence of God but it also lends a comprehensible import to the term generally employed in describing the Supreme as "The Lord of the Universe" (Sarva loka maheshwarah).
While listening to this discourse, Arjuna seems to have lost himself in an experience bordering upon the transcendental. This preparation, given to Arjuna, provides a necessary mental elevation in cosmic self-expansion, without which the special power of cognition to experience the concept of the Cosmic-Man as described in the following chapter would never have been possible.
|| Chapter-10 ||
Source: The Holy Geeta
