Bg 11.29
yathā pradīptaṁ jvalanaṁ pataṅgā viśanti nāśāya samṛddha-vegāḥ
tathaiva nāśāya viśanti lokās tavāpi vaktrāṇi samṛddha-vegāḥ
Bg 11.30
lelihyase grasamānaḥ samantāl lokān samagrān vadanair jvaladbhiḥ
tejobhir āpūrya jagat samagraṁ bhāsas tavogrāḥ pratapanti viṣṇo
Bg 11.31
ākhyāhi me ko bhavān ugra-rūpo namo ’stu te deva-vara prasīda
vijñātum icchāmi bhavantam ādyaṁ na hi prajānāmi tava pravṛttim
Translation
Arjuna says: 29. As moths rush hurriedly into a blazing fire for their own destruction, so also these creatures hastily rush into Your mouths of destruction.
30. Devouring all worlds on every side with Your flaming mouths, You are licking (in enjoyment). Your fierce rays, filling the whole world with radiance, are burning, O Vishnu.
31. Tell me, who You are, so fierce in form? Salutations to You, O God Supreme; have mercy. I desire to know You, the Original Being, I know not indeed Your purpose.
Commentary
The essential oneness between the MANIFEST that has come out of the UNMANIFEST, and the very UNMANIFEST which is the womb-of-manifestation, has been beautifully brought out by the picture of the river, which has risen from the ocean and is, in all haste, rushing down only to lose its very name and form, and become one with the ocean.
No analogy can be complete in itself. The picture of the river does not show any intrinsic conscious effort on the part of the river to reach the ocean. The living kingdom, with its own free discrimination, it may be doubted, may not act as the inert waters of the river. To show that even the sentient beings are irresistibly drawn towards the mouth of their own destruction, by the whipping hand of instinct, the example of "THE MOTHS PRECIPITATELY RUSHING INTO THE BLAZING FIRE TO PERISH" is given to Vyasa, the entire nature seems to be an open book-of-scripture, explaining everywhere in all its happenings, the fundamental facts that "the projection of the unmanifest to the manifest-condition is the PROCESS OF CREATION" and that "the manifest merging back to its own heaven of the unmanifest is DESTRUCTION OR DEATH." That terrible looking monstrous happening called 'death,' when approached in a correct perspective and with true understanding, unmasks itself to reveal a gladdening face, ever cheerful and gay.
Arjuna's mental tension was mainly created by his hasty evaluation of the enormous destruction he would be causing in the battle-field of Kurukshetra. Krishna has to cure him, by lifting him to heights from which he could witness and realise, in one sweeping gaze, the unavoidable phenomenon of death. A close and full understanding of any happening removes the fangs from its threatening hood! It is only when the discriminating intellect of man becomes doped with "ignorance," that the happenings around him can threaten to smother him down. As the river hastens to the ocean, and the moths into the fire, so too all names and forms must, and most irresistibly do, rush towards the unmanifest. With this realisation, anyone can thereafter face life, fearless of death, since life itself becomes to him a process of continuous change.
THEREFORE DEATH, AS A PLAY-OF-TIME, BECOMES A STINGLESS PHENOMENON. THIS IS GLORIFIED IN ALL ITS FEROCIOUS BEAUTY IN THE FOLLOWING VERSES:
After composing some surging poetry, Vyasa faithfully comes back to the line of thought he was developing earlier. Hosts of men and things of the world reach the Mouth to perish therein. The hungry Mouth is never tired, for, the principle of destruction has a never-ending appetite, and after "SWALLOWING ALL THE WORLD ALL AROUND, YOU ARE LICKING YOUR LIPS," exclaims Arjuna.
In fact, the stanza clearly brings forth the implication underlying the concept of the Trinity. The Creator, the Sustainer, and the Destroyer are three distinct entities in concept, but in their actual workings, they constitute a simultaneous process. Creation is continued in a chain of destruction, and the process of destruction is not a total annihilation but only a change from one form to another thereby ending in a new Creation. "Constructive destruction" is the secret philosophy behind the continuity of existence observed everywhere.
In a cinema show, the various poses on the film are made to run on in front of the arc-light, and each picture that has passed away from the arc-light may be considered as dead, and those reaching the arc-light as those that are born. The continuity in these two series of happenings of births and deaths, or constructions and destructions, gives us the hallucination of a logical sequence in the theme revealed on the screen. Conditioned by 'place and time,' things and beings, happenings and circumstances, come and go in the plane of our experiences and their continuity is what we experience as "existence."
The above idea can be repeated in the language of our traditional belief in the Trinity. Brahmaji, the Creator, cannot create unless Shiva, the Destroyer, is functioning simultaneously on the same anvil. And Vishnu, the Sustainer, will never come to play unless the Creator and the Destroyer work feverishly and consistently. The whole world of multiplicity is thus an expression of Vishnu, the Sustainer, which is nothing other than the product of the game played by both the Creator and the Destroyer!
When, with such depth of understanding, Arjuna looks at the mighty resplendence of the Totality-Form, he feels almost blindfolded by "THE FIERY RADIANCE OF ITS FIERCE RAYS."
YOU ARE FEARSOME; THEREFORE:
Arjuna realises suddenly the sanctity and the divinity of the Lord's Power, and so, in a inspired rush of veneration, he bows down to Him whom till now he took to be but a cowherd boy of Vrindavana. Intellectual though he may be, here is an experience too big for him to observe fully, analyse carefully, and digest completely. The only thing he can do is to surrender himself at the very feet of the Lord, requesting Him, "TELL ME WHO YOU ARE."
To reinforce the solidity of the query, Arjuna indicates that his question deserves an answer, for, "I DESIRE TO KNOW THEE, O PRIMEVAL ONE." It is very well known in the textbooks of spirituality, that "a burning aspiration to know" is the motive force behind every seeker's mind and intellect. But here Arjuna is preoccupied with the problem of challenge that is facing him, and therefore, he is not, in fact, directly seeking the Divine Truth behind the Vision. His enquiry is highly coloured by the emotion of fear in him and his anxiety to know what would be the outcome of the war. This is clear from the last line wherein he himself explains: Indeed I know not "YOUR PURPOSE." The enquiry made here is "What is the mission of the Lord in taking such a terrible form, and in presenting Himself in front of Arjuna, exhibiting how the Kaurava forces are marching in all hurry towards the burning Mouth-of-Death?" When he intensely longs for a thing to happen and when sure signs, forecasting his success, present themselves, he needs a confirmation from others. Here Arjuna is witnessing what he exactly wishes should happen. But the Prince wants to get a confirmation of the same from Krishna Himself. Hence this question.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
yathā pradīptaṁ jvalanaṁ pataṅgā viśanti nāśāya samṛddha-vegāḥ
tathaiva nāśāya viśanti lokās tavāpi vaktrāṇi samṛddha-vegāḥ
Bg 11.30
lelihyase grasamānaḥ samantāl lokān samagrān vadanair jvaladbhiḥ
tejobhir āpūrya jagat samagraṁ bhāsas tavogrāḥ pratapanti viṣṇo
Bg 11.31
ākhyāhi me ko bhavān ugra-rūpo namo ’stu te deva-vara prasīda
vijñātum icchāmi bhavantam ādyaṁ na hi prajānāmi tava pravṛttim
Translation
Arjuna says: 29. As moths rush hurriedly into a blazing fire for their own destruction, so also these creatures hastily rush into Your mouths of destruction.
30. Devouring all worlds on every side with Your flaming mouths, You are licking (in enjoyment). Your fierce rays, filling the whole world with radiance, are burning, O Vishnu.
31. Tell me, who You are, so fierce in form? Salutations to You, O God Supreme; have mercy. I desire to know You, the Original Being, I know not indeed Your purpose.
Commentary
The essential oneness between the MANIFEST that has come out of the UNMANIFEST, and the very UNMANIFEST which is the womb-of-manifestation, has been beautifully brought out by the picture of the river, which has risen from the ocean and is, in all haste, rushing down only to lose its very name and form, and become one with the ocean.
No analogy can be complete in itself. The picture of the river does not show any intrinsic conscious effort on the part of the river to reach the ocean. The living kingdom, with its own free discrimination, it may be doubted, may not act as the inert waters of the river. To show that even the sentient beings are irresistibly drawn towards the mouth of their own destruction, by the whipping hand of instinct, the example of "THE MOTHS PRECIPITATELY RUSHING INTO THE BLAZING FIRE TO PERISH" is given to Vyasa, the entire nature seems to be an open book-of-scripture, explaining everywhere in all its happenings, the fundamental facts that "the projection of the unmanifest to the manifest-condition is the PROCESS OF CREATION" and that "the manifest merging back to its own heaven of the unmanifest is DESTRUCTION OR DEATH." That terrible looking monstrous happening called 'death,' when approached in a correct perspective and with true understanding, unmasks itself to reveal a gladdening face, ever cheerful and gay.
Arjuna's mental tension was mainly created by his hasty evaluation of the enormous destruction he would be causing in the battle-field of Kurukshetra. Krishna has to cure him, by lifting him to heights from which he could witness and realise, in one sweeping gaze, the unavoidable phenomenon of death. A close and full understanding of any happening removes the fangs from its threatening hood! It is only when the discriminating intellect of man becomes doped with "ignorance," that the happenings around him can threaten to smother him down. As the river hastens to the ocean, and the moths into the fire, so too all names and forms must, and most irresistibly do, rush towards the unmanifest. With this realisation, anyone can thereafter face life, fearless of death, since life itself becomes to him a process of continuous change.
THEREFORE DEATH, AS A PLAY-OF-TIME, BECOMES A STINGLESS PHENOMENON. THIS IS GLORIFIED IN ALL ITS FEROCIOUS BEAUTY IN THE FOLLOWING VERSES:
After composing some surging poetry, Vyasa faithfully comes back to the line of thought he was developing earlier. Hosts of men and things of the world reach the Mouth to perish therein. The hungry Mouth is never tired, for, the principle of destruction has a never-ending appetite, and after "SWALLOWING ALL THE WORLD ALL AROUND, YOU ARE LICKING YOUR LIPS," exclaims Arjuna.
In fact, the stanza clearly brings forth the implication underlying the concept of the Trinity. The Creator, the Sustainer, and the Destroyer are three distinct entities in concept, but in their actual workings, they constitute a simultaneous process. Creation is continued in a chain of destruction, and the process of destruction is not a total annihilation but only a change from one form to another thereby ending in a new Creation. "Constructive destruction" is the secret philosophy behind the continuity of existence observed everywhere.
In a cinema show, the various poses on the film are made to run on in front of the arc-light, and each picture that has passed away from the arc-light may be considered as dead, and those reaching the arc-light as those that are born. The continuity in these two series of happenings of births and deaths, or constructions and destructions, gives us the hallucination of a logical sequence in the theme revealed on the screen. Conditioned by 'place and time,' things and beings, happenings and circumstances, come and go in the plane of our experiences and their continuity is what we experience as "existence."
The above idea can be repeated in the language of our traditional belief in the Trinity. Brahmaji, the Creator, cannot create unless Shiva, the Destroyer, is functioning simultaneously on the same anvil. And Vishnu, the Sustainer, will never come to play unless the Creator and the Destroyer work feverishly and consistently. The whole world of multiplicity is thus an expression of Vishnu, the Sustainer, which is nothing other than the product of the game played by both the Creator and the Destroyer!
When, with such depth of understanding, Arjuna looks at the mighty resplendence of the Totality-Form, he feels almost blindfolded by "THE FIERY RADIANCE OF ITS FIERCE RAYS."
YOU ARE FEARSOME; THEREFORE:
Arjuna realises suddenly the sanctity and the divinity of the Lord's Power, and so, in a inspired rush of veneration, he bows down to Him whom till now he took to be but a cowherd boy of Vrindavana. Intellectual though he may be, here is an experience too big for him to observe fully, analyse carefully, and digest completely. The only thing he can do is to surrender himself at the very feet of the Lord, requesting Him, "TELL ME WHO YOU ARE."
To reinforce the solidity of the query, Arjuna indicates that his question deserves an answer, for, "I DESIRE TO KNOW THEE, O PRIMEVAL ONE." It is very well known in the textbooks of spirituality, that "a burning aspiration to know" is the motive force behind every seeker's mind and intellect. But here Arjuna is preoccupied with the problem of challenge that is facing him, and therefore, he is not, in fact, directly seeking the Divine Truth behind the Vision. His enquiry is highly coloured by the emotion of fear in him and his anxiety to know what would be the outcome of the war. This is clear from the last line wherein he himself explains: Indeed I know not "YOUR PURPOSE." The enquiry made here is "What is the mission of the Lord in taking such a terrible form, and in presenting Himself in front of Arjuna, exhibiting how the Kaurava forces are marching in all hurry towards the burning Mouth-of-Death?" When he intensely longs for a thing to happen and when sure signs, forecasting his success, present themselves, he needs a confirmation from others. Here Arjuna is witnessing what he exactly wishes should happen. But the Prince wants to get a confirmation of the same from Krishna Himself. Hence this question.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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