Bg 11.45
adṛṣṭa-pūrvaṁ hṛṣito ’smi dṛṣṭvā bhayena ca pravyathitaṁ mano me
tad eva me darśaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśa jagan-nivāsa
Bg 11.46
kirīṭinaṁ gadinaṁ cakra-hastam icchāmi tvāṁ draṣṭum ahaṁ tathaiva
tenaiva rūpeṇa catur-bhujena sahasra-bāho bhava viśva-mūrte
Translation
45.I am delighted, having seen what was never seen before; and (yet) my mind is distressed with fear. Show me your previous form only, O God; have mercy, O God of gods, O Abode of the Universe.
46.I desire to see You as before, crowned, bearing a mace, with a discus in hand, in Your Former Form only, having four arms, O Thousand-armed, O Universal Form.
Commentary
Every devotee falls in love with the Lord of his devotion and thus when, from the FORM he gets transcended to the Infinite and Full nature of the FORMLESS, that was represented so long by the FORM, he experiences, no doubt, an Infinite Joy, but at that very moment he is overtaken by the emotion of "fear." This is the experience of every seeker during the days of his early attempts at getting over the evil of spiritual 'ignorance.' The new realm of joy lived within is, no doubt, absolutely blissful, but a sudden sense of fear exiles him back to body-consciousness and the consequent mental agitation.
At the dawn of his experience Divine, the limited ego, escaping all its limitations, enters into a world unknown to it so far, and it experiences with all joy the vastness of its own dynamism. Arjuna expresses his idea when he says, "I AM DELIGHTED, HAVING SEEN WHAT WAS UNSEEN BEFORE." But in the earlier attempts, a seeker is not fit to maintain for long his equilibrium in that Divine Realm, and his mind seemingly dissolved to enter the STILL-MOMENT-OF-MEDITATION, revives again to flutter into activity, and we find, almost always, that it is the emotion of "fear" that the mind first experiences, when, with a dreadful shudder it crystallizes itself to sink into the welter of the body and its demands. At this time, a devotee identifies himself with his own emotions of love and devotion and implores the "Lord of his heart" to manifest His own sportive form of smiles and softness, of musical words and loving looks.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE FORM IN WHICH ARJUNA WANTED THE LORD TO APPEAR BEFORE HIM, IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING:
Arjuna makes an open confession here of what he actually wishes. "I WISH TO SEE YOU AS BEFORE." He is afraid of the Universal Form into which the Lord has expanded to express His oneness with the essence in the entire gross-world of matter.
When the Vedantic concept of Truth is thus experienced or expressed in its universal majesty and grandeur, few have the required intellectual stamina to conceive of the Totality and adore It. Even at moments when the intellect can handle such an idea, the heart of the devotee will often fail to tune up its emotion to live the Absolute-experience for long. From the mental zone, Truth can be conceived of and enjoyed only through its symbols and not directly in Its Total-grandeur.
Defining the Form of Vaasudeva in his milder-manifestation, Arjuna explains in this stanza the traditional form of Vishnu, the Lord of the Bhagavata. The concept of God as represented in the phenomena, has been described in all Puranas, as having four hands. This may look like a biological freak to students of physiology. We are apt to forget that they are figurative representations symbolising the concept of Truth.
The four hands of the God-form represent the four facets of the "inner-instrument" in man.
The Lord Himself, the Self who wields these four hands is represented everywhere as BLUE in colour, and clothed in YELLOW. The significant hue of BLUE is the colour of the Infinite, and the measureless always appears as BLUE, just as the summer-sky or the deep-ocean. YELLOW is the colour of the earth. Thus the Infinite, clothed in the finite, playing the game of life through the four "inner-instruments" is the symbolism behind Lord Vishnu.
It is also interesting to note that the concept of God in every religion is the same inasmuch as He is the Supreme-most with every power and all knowledge. Man achieves things by the strength of His hands, and the Lord, who is all-powerful, can therefore be symbolised only by showing that He has four hands. The four symbolical instruments which the Lord is represented to carry in His four hands are the club, the discus, the conch and the lotus. The call of the Divine comes to everyone's bosom, when He blows His CONCH, and if man were not to listen to the call of the Higher dictates in himself, the CLUB follows to punch him, and in spite of that, if man continues his own mistakes, the DISCUS chops him down. In case the roar of the "conch" is obeyed implicitly, then he gains the LOTUS, a flower that represents, in Hinduism, what the white-dove and the poppy-flower stand for in Western tradition. Peace and prosperity are the significance of "lotus" in India. Lotus signifies PERFECTION SPIRITUAL.
Arjuna, in short, wants the Lord to appear in his serener-Form and quieter-Attitude. For all early seekers and new initiates in Vedanta, it naturally becomes difficult to keep, in themselves, the same tempo for their philosophical pursuits. At such moments of dissipation and drowsiness of the intellect, the aspiring heart must discover some reposeful resting-place wherein it can revive itself. This bed-of-peace and tranquillity, upon which the inner personality of man can revive and grow into its fuller stature, is the glorious Form of the Lord.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
adṛṣṭa-pūrvaṁ hṛṣito ’smi dṛṣṭvā bhayena ca pravyathitaṁ mano me
tad eva me darśaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśa jagan-nivāsa
Bg 11.46
kirīṭinaṁ gadinaṁ cakra-hastam icchāmi tvāṁ draṣṭum ahaṁ tathaiva
tenaiva rūpeṇa catur-bhujena sahasra-bāho bhava viśva-mūrte
Translation
45.I am delighted, having seen what was never seen before; and (yet) my mind is distressed with fear. Show me your previous form only, O God; have mercy, O God of gods, O Abode of the Universe.
46.I desire to see You as before, crowned, bearing a mace, with a discus in hand, in Your Former Form only, having four arms, O Thousand-armed, O Universal Form.
Commentary
Every devotee falls in love with the Lord of his devotion and thus when, from the FORM he gets transcended to the Infinite and Full nature of the FORMLESS, that was represented so long by the FORM, he experiences, no doubt, an Infinite Joy, but at that very moment he is overtaken by the emotion of "fear." This is the experience of every seeker during the days of his early attempts at getting over the evil of spiritual 'ignorance.' The new realm of joy lived within is, no doubt, absolutely blissful, but a sudden sense of fear exiles him back to body-consciousness and the consequent mental agitation.
At the dawn of his experience Divine, the limited ego, escaping all its limitations, enters into a world unknown to it so far, and it experiences with all joy the vastness of its own dynamism. Arjuna expresses his idea when he says, "I AM DELIGHTED, HAVING SEEN WHAT WAS UNSEEN BEFORE." But in the earlier attempts, a seeker is not fit to maintain for long his equilibrium in that Divine Realm, and his mind seemingly dissolved to enter the STILL-MOMENT-OF-MEDITATION, revives again to flutter into activity, and we find, almost always, that it is the emotion of "fear" that the mind first experiences, when, with a dreadful shudder it crystallizes itself to sink into the welter of the body and its demands. At this time, a devotee identifies himself with his own emotions of love and devotion and implores the "Lord of his heart" to manifest His own sportive form of smiles and softness, of musical words and loving looks.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE FORM IN WHICH ARJUNA WANTED THE LORD TO APPEAR BEFORE HIM, IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING:
Arjuna makes an open confession here of what he actually wishes. "I WISH TO SEE YOU AS BEFORE." He is afraid of the Universal Form into which the Lord has expanded to express His oneness with the essence in the entire gross-world of matter.
When the Vedantic concept of Truth is thus experienced or expressed in its universal majesty and grandeur, few have the required intellectual stamina to conceive of the Totality and adore It. Even at moments when the intellect can handle such an idea, the heart of the devotee will often fail to tune up its emotion to live the Absolute-experience for long. From the mental zone, Truth can be conceived of and enjoyed only through its symbols and not directly in Its Total-grandeur.
Defining the Form of Vaasudeva in his milder-manifestation, Arjuna explains in this stanza the traditional form of Vishnu, the Lord of the Bhagavata. The concept of God as represented in the phenomena, has been described in all Puranas, as having four hands. This may look like a biological freak to students of physiology. We are apt to forget that they are figurative representations symbolising the concept of Truth.
The four hands of the God-form represent the four facets of the "inner-instrument" in man.
The Lord Himself, the Self who wields these four hands is represented everywhere as BLUE in colour, and clothed in YELLOW. The significant hue of BLUE is the colour of the Infinite, and the measureless always appears as BLUE, just as the summer-sky or the deep-ocean. YELLOW is the colour of the earth. Thus the Infinite, clothed in the finite, playing the game of life through the four "inner-instruments" is the symbolism behind Lord Vishnu.
It is also interesting to note that the concept of God in every religion is the same inasmuch as He is the Supreme-most with every power and all knowledge. Man achieves things by the strength of His hands, and the Lord, who is all-powerful, can therefore be symbolised only by showing that He has four hands. The four symbolical instruments which the Lord is represented to carry in His four hands are the club, the discus, the conch and the lotus. The call of the Divine comes to everyone's bosom, when He blows His CONCH, and if man were not to listen to the call of the Higher dictates in himself, the CLUB follows to punch him, and in spite of that, if man continues his own mistakes, the DISCUS chops him down. In case the roar of the "conch" is obeyed implicitly, then he gains the LOTUS, a flower that represents, in Hinduism, what the white-dove and the poppy-flower stand for in Western tradition. Peace and prosperity are the significance of "lotus" in India. Lotus signifies PERFECTION SPIRITUAL.
Arjuna, in short, wants the Lord to appear in his serener-Form and quieter-Attitude. For all early seekers and new initiates in Vedanta, it naturally becomes difficult to keep, in themselves, the same tempo for their philosophical pursuits. At such moments of dissipation and drowsiness of the intellect, the aspiring heart must discover some reposeful resting-place wherein it can revive itself. This bed-of-peace and tranquillity, upon which the inner personality of man can revive and grow into its fuller stature, is the glorious Form of the Lord.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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