Bg 11.38
tvam ādi-devaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇas tvam asya viśvasya paraṁ nidhānam
vettāsi vedyaṁ ca paraṁ ca dhāma tvayā tataṁ viśvam ananta-rūpa
Bg 11.39
vāyur yamo ’gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaś ca
namo namas te ’stu sahasra-kṛtvaḥ punaś ca bhūyo ’pi namo namas te
Translation
38. You are the Primal God, the Ancient PURUSHA; You are the Supreme Refuge of this universe. You are the knower, the knowable, and the Abode-Supreme. By Thee is the universe pervaded, O Being of Infinite forms.
39. You are VAYU, YAMA, AGNI, VARUNA, the Moon, PRAJAPATI, and the great-grandfather of all. Salutations! Salutations unto You a thousand times, and again salutations unto You!
Commentary
YOU ARE THE PRIMAL GOD --- The Self is the Supreme Creator. The Pure Consciousness is the womb from which even the Creator has risen. The Self, conditioned by Its own creative urge, plays the part of the Creator.
YOU ARE THE SUPREME ABODE OF THE UNIVERSE --- The entire Vishwa is housed in the Lord, and therefore, it is said that the Lord is the Abode for the Universe. Here, the term Vishwa is to be correctly understood. When this is translated as the "Universe," we are apt to confuse it with the astronomers' universe or the scientists' universe. The Sanskrit term Vishwa includes these and even more. It includes the entire world of perceptions and the whole field of emotions and the total realms of thought that we, as intelligent individuals, experience in all our lives. This totality of the world of experience through the body, mind and intellect together is indicated by the term Vishwa.
With this understanding of the term Vishwa, it should not be very difficult for the students of Vedanta to understand the full meaning of this life. We are all now experiencing our world through the matter equipments of our body, mind and intellect. These, being products of inert matter, have no Consciousness of their own except that which they borrow from the Infinite, the Self.
These matter envelopments, we have already indicated, are not produced from the Self, as the Self is changeless. The world of matter cannot be said to arise from any other independent source, since the Self is All-pervading and is the One-without-a-second. Therefore, it is explained that the Vishwa is but a superimposition upon the Truth, as the ghost-vision gained on a post. In all such hallucinations, the post is the abode of the ghost, of the emotions which it creates, and of the thoughts it generates. There is no truth in the ghost apart from the post from which it borrows its ghost-form. Thus, it is the Self that is indicated here by Arjuna when he so beautifully sings that the Lord is the "Supreme Abode" of the entire Vishwa.
THOU ART THE KNOWER AND THE KNOWABLE --- The Awareness in us is the Factor that completes all our experiences as realities. If the Light of Awareness were not to illumine the inert world-of-matter, no knowledge would have been possible, and therefore, the Principle of Consciousness, represented here as Lord Krishna, the Charioteer --- is described here as the Knower. All the techniques of Self-realisation are methods of gathering our Consciousness from all its channels of dissipation, so that, in the still moments of thoughtless Awareness, the Self is automatically RECOGNISED. It is thus said 'the Knowable,' or the realisable.
YOU PERVADE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE OF FORMS --- Just as sweetness pervades all chocolates, as the ocean pervades all waves, the Lord, being the essence, pervades everything. It was said just a little before, that the super-impositions cannot exist apart from the Substratum upon which they are being perceived. The Self is the Substratum on which the multitude of the world-of-plurality is visualised, and therefore, it is rightly said that "HE PERVADES ALL." This is only a repetition of the great Upanishadic Truth that "the Infinite pervades all, and nothing pervades It."
So far Arjuna was chanting the glories of the God in His transcendental form. A devotee (Upasaka) may wonder what exactly the relationship of the Supreme with his particular Lord-of-the-heart (Upasya) is. The forms and names of Deities conceived of, and fervently prayed to in ancient times, are generally representations of the manifested phenomenal powers.
In the Vedic period, Vayu (the Wind), Yama (the Destroyer), Agni (the Fire), Varuna (the Sea-god), Shashanka (the Moon)* and Prajapati (The Creator) were considered as Deities for reverence and devotion, concentration and growth of the seeker's inner personality. These gods were involved in those days through chantings and worship, through rituals and sacrifices, and therefore, they were the only popular concepts of God even in the minds of the educated. Oftentimes and everywhere, "means" have a tendency to get misunderstood as the very "goal." Arjuna, here in his true understanding, indicates the Infinite, the Source of all potentialities, the Lord, as nothing other than Krishna, the Infinite.
That the Supreme Lord, in fact, expressing through various functions, Himself plays the part of these Deities, is an acceptable view from the standpoint of Vedanta. In our own times it is usual for the devotees to invoke the Lord and assert that 'the Lord of their heart' is the Lord of all Lords. To this Lord of all Lords, Arjuna prostrates.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
tvam ādi-devaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇas tvam asya viśvasya paraṁ nidhānam
vettāsi vedyaṁ ca paraṁ ca dhāma tvayā tataṁ viśvam ananta-rūpa
Bg 11.39
vāyur yamo ’gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaś ca
namo namas te ’stu sahasra-kṛtvaḥ punaś ca bhūyo ’pi namo namas te
Translation
38. You are the Primal God, the Ancient PURUSHA; You are the Supreme Refuge of this universe. You are the knower, the knowable, and the Abode-Supreme. By Thee is the universe pervaded, O Being of Infinite forms.
39. You are VAYU, YAMA, AGNI, VARUNA, the Moon, PRAJAPATI, and the great-grandfather of all. Salutations! Salutations unto You a thousand times, and again salutations unto You!
Commentary
YOU ARE THE PRIMAL GOD --- The Self is the Supreme Creator. The Pure Consciousness is the womb from which even the Creator has risen. The Self, conditioned by Its own creative urge, plays the part of the Creator.
YOU ARE THE SUPREME ABODE OF THE UNIVERSE --- The entire Vishwa is housed in the Lord, and therefore, it is said that the Lord is the Abode for the Universe. Here, the term Vishwa is to be correctly understood. When this is translated as the "Universe," we are apt to confuse it with the astronomers' universe or the scientists' universe. The Sanskrit term Vishwa includes these and even more. It includes the entire world of perceptions and the whole field of emotions and the total realms of thought that we, as intelligent individuals, experience in all our lives. This totality of the world of experience through the body, mind and intellect together is indicated by the term Vishwa.
With this understanding of the term Vishwa, it should not be very difficult for the students of Vedanta to understand the full meaning of this life. We are all now experiencing our world through the matter equipments of our body, mind and intellect. These, being products of inert matter, have no Consciousness of their own except that which they borrow from the Infinite, the Self.
These matter envelopments, we have already indicated, are not produced from the Self, as the Self is changeless. The world of matter cannot be said to arise from any other independent source, since the Self is All-pervading and is the One-without-a-second. Therefore, it is explained that the Vishwa is but a superimposition upon the Truth, as the ghost-vision gained on a post. In all such hallucinations, the post is the abode of the ghost, of the emotions which it creates, and of the thoughts it generates. There is no truth in the ghost apart from the post from which it borrows its ghost-form. Thus, it is the Self that is indicated here by Arjuna when he so beautifully sings that the Lord is the "Supreme Abode" of the entire Vishwa.
THOU ART THE KNOWER AND THE KNOWABLE --- The Awareness in us is the Factor that completes all our experiences as realities. If the Light of Awareness were not to illumine the inert world-of-matter, no knowledge would have been possible, and therefore, the Principle of Consciousness, represented here as Lord Krishna, the Charioteer --- is described here as the Knower. All the techniques of Self-realisation are methods of gathering our Consciousness from all its channels of dissipation, so that, in the still moments of thoughtless Awareness, the Self is automatically RECOGNISED. It is thus said 'the Knowable,' or the realisable.
YOU PERVADE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE OF FORMS --- Just as sweetness pervades all chocolates, as the ocean pervades all waves, the Lord, being the essence, pervades everything. It was said just a little before, that the super-impositions cannot exist apart from the Substratum upon which they are being perceived. The Self is the Substratum on which the multitude of the world-of-plurality is visualised, and therefore, it is rightly said that "HE PERVADES ALL." This is only a repetition of the great Upanishadic Truth that "the Infinite pervades all, and nothing pervades It."
So far Arjuna was chanting the glories of the God in His transcendental form. A devotee (Upasaka) may wonder what exactly the relationship of the Supreme with his particular Lord-of-the-heart (Upasya) is. The forms and names of Deities conceived of, and fervently prayed to in ancient times, are generally representations of the manifested phenomenal powers.
In the Vedic period, Vayu (the Wind), Yama (the Destroyer), Agni (the Fire), Varuna (the Sea-god), Shashanka (the Moon)* and Prajapati (The Creator) were considered as Deities for reverence and devotion, concentration and growth of the seeker's inner personality. These gods were involved in those days through chantings and worship, through rituals and sacrifices, and therefore, they were the only popular concepts of God even in the minds of the educated. Oftentimes and everywhere, "means" have a tendency to get misunderstood as the very "goal." Arjuna, here in his true understanding, indicates the Infinite, the Source of all potentialities, the Lord, as nothing other than Krishna, the Infinite.
That the Supreme Lord, in fact, expressing through various functions, Himself plays the part of these Deities, is an acceptable view from the standpoint of Vedanta. In our own times it is usual for the devotees to invoke the Lord and assert that 'the Lord of their heart' is the Lord of all Lords. To this Lord of all Lords, Arjuna prostrates.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
No comments:
Post a Comment