Daily Shlokas: October 6, 2016

Bg 11.18

tvam akṣaraṁ paramaṁ veditavyaṁ tvam asya viśvasya paraṁ nidhānam
tvam avyayaḥ śāśvata-dharma-goptā sanātanas tvaṁ puruṣo mato me

Bg 11.19

anādi-madhyāntam ananta-vīryam ananta-bāhuṁ śaśi-sūrya-netram
paśyāmi tvāṁ dīpta-hutāśa-vaktraṁ sva-tejasā viśvam idaṁ tapantam

Translation

18. You are the Imperishable, the Supreme Being worthy to be known. You are the great treasure-house of this Universe. You are the imperishable Protector of the Eternal DHARMA. In my opinion, You are the Ancient PURUSHA.

19. I see You without beginning, middle, or end, infinite in power, of endless arms, the sun and moon being Your eyes, the burning fire Your mouth, heating the whole universe with Your radiance.

Commentary

From every experience, all intelligent men try to gather their own conclusions, which alone, in fact, constitute true knowledge. Arjuna had a great experience, too subtle for words to express, or for his intellect to comprehend, in all its entirety. But from what he saw, he tries to draw certain conclusions. Crystallised into his understanding, the conclusions are that the Power behind this Cosmic Form is that which is the Imperishable Supreme Truth.

When we see all the waves playing on the surface of the ocean, manifesting and disappearing after a temporary existence into the very waters from which they rose, we generally conclude that the ocean is the source of all waves. It becomes at once the rest-house for the waves, or the treasure-house for all the disturbances. Similarly, Arjuna comes to the intelligent conclusion that Krishna, as the Cosmic-Form, is the very Substratum from which the pluralistic world of phenomena arises, exists in, and merges into. The Universe (Vishwa) mentioned here, is not merely the astronomers' universe of physical things, but, in Vedanta, Vishwa is the sum-total experience of everyone, gained through the individual instruments of perception, feeling and understanding. The Lord is the foundation (Nidhaanam) for the entire universe of disturbances, experienced by us at our physical, mental and intellectual levels.

Things that change can continue to do so only on a changeless substratum. The world-of-change plays ever to the tune of Time and Space. But, in order that we may feel a continuity of the happenings and thereby gain a comprehensive experience of the total, there must be one constant and changeless "Knowing-principle" that registers the happenings, without itself in the least being involved in the change. That truth is the Self, and the Self alone is that which could take upon itself the stupendous Universal-Form (Vishwaroopa). Keeping these ideas in mind, Arjuna declares that He who has transformed Himself into this Wonder-Form is the One Changeless Truth, that permeates the entire realm of changes and modifications.

In India, to the Hindus, the protector of his Dharma is not a mortal king, or a priest class. The Supreme alone is its guardian, for the Hindus are not the followers of any accidental prophet, who has a fleeting historical reality and a limited mission of serving his immediate generation with the best he had. To the Hindu, THE ETERNAL TRUTH

IS HIS GOAL, HIS MASTER AND HIS WAY. We demand no mortal power with its poison-gas and atom-bomb to protect our Dharma.

THAT YOU ARE THE ANCIENT PURUSHA, IS MY OPINION --- In Vedanta, the very physical structure is considered as a Capital-city with nine gates, each controlled and guarded by its presiding deity. That which dwells in the city, here meaning the body, is in Sanskrit 'Purusha.' In the context of the stanza, it only means that the solution for the riddle of life, which is the source, or substratum of the whole universe, is to be sought, not among the world-of-objects but within the very layers of personalities in us, until we discover it as the Purusha, the Eternal. The Conscious Principle, which is the Spark-of-life in everyone, is here indicated to be the very Eternal Truth which alone can take up the Form-Universal, as it stands now in front of Arjuna's bewildered gaze.

MOREOVER:

Continuing the description of the Infinite as comprehended by the subtle perception of Arjuna and interpreted by his intellect in terms of the Universe of things and names, it is explained, "I SEE THEE WITHOUT BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND END, INFINITE IN POWER, OF INFINITE ARMS." This pen-picture, drawn by Vyasa with his eloquent poetry, gives a false impression that the theme is an object, and many are the artists who have tried to capture this form on the canvas. The folly is clear to every intelligent student of Vedanta. That which is Infinite, without beginning or end, cannot be brought within the area of a limited canvas-piece. 

But, at the same time, the phrase "OF INFINITE ARMS" tickles the painter to express it through his own art. In fact, the Universal-Form, standing out so clearly in relief work in this transcendental apprehension of the author, can be comprehended only by students of deep understanding and developed intuition.

Here, by the term "OF INFINITE ARMS" it only means that the Supreme Self, as the dynamic life, is the one essential strength behind every hand that acts and achieves.

The "principle of light" is the very "principle" in the eye. If the eyes were not there, light itself would have no meaning. At the same time, if the "principle of light" were not blessing the objects of form, the instruments of cognition --- the eyes --- could not have functioned at all. We have here the description of the totality. The "principle of vision," i.e., all the eyes in the whole universe, is described as the pair-of-eyes, in the Universal-Form of the Lord. 

Therefore, in the technical language of Vedanta, it has been aptly described here that "THE SUN AND THE MOON ARE YOUR EYES."

BURNING FIRE OF YOUR MOUTH --- Here fire has been considered as the principle behind speech and the principle governing taste. Warm food tastes better; frozen-food has no taste. The presiding deity of speech can FIRE the generation. HEATED discussions always take place; cold discussion is a painful monotony. Speeches that freeze the audience are only lullabies. And the mouth being the seat for both the instruments of speech and taste, the mouth of the Vishwaroopa is explained here as "Fire."

HEATING THE WHOLE UNIVERSE WITH YOUR RADIANCE --- The Self cannot but be luminous, because Consciousness illumines all experiences, at all times, in all living organisms. This light of Consciousness not only illumines, but also imparts the Warmth of life to the entire Universe. From the very statement it is evident that the ancient Hindu had turned his gaze inward only when he had exhausted his observations and study of the world outside. It seems that he knew well that at a certain degree of temperature alone life could continue on this globe; below the required minimum and above the maximum temperature, life would be extinct.

The light that is emanating from Truth is Its own light, and not something which It has derived from any other source. It is by "Your own Radiance" (Swa-Tejasa) that the life is sustained in the world of names and forms.

Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta