Category Archives: netram

Bhagavad Gita Verse 19, Chapter 11

02 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in 11.19, anaadi, anantabaahum, anantaveeryam, antam, chapter 11 verse 19, deepta, hutaashavaktram, idam, madhya, netram, pashyaami, shashi, soorya, svatejasaa, tapantam, tvaam, vishvam

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anaadimadhyaantamanantaveeryamanantabaahum shashisooryanetram |
pashyaami tvaam deeptahutaashavaktram svatejasaa vishvamidam tapantam || 19 ||
 
I see you without beginning, middle and end, with infinite prowess and infinite arms, with the moon and sun as your eyes, with blazing fire out of your mouth. Your radiance burns this universe.
 
anaadi : without beginning
madhya : middle
antam : end
anantaveeryam : infinite prowess
anantabaahum : infinite arms
shashi : moon
soorya : sun
netram : eyes
pashyaami : I see
tvaam : you
deepta : blazing
hutaashavaktram : fire coming out of mouth
svatejasaa : your radiance
vishvam : universe
idam : this
tapantam : burns
 
Ishvara’s infinite nature is highlighted by Arjuna in this shloka. He repeatedly tried to search for the beginning, middle and end of Ishvara’s cosmic form, but fails to do so. He does find something for his mind to hold onto. The moon and the sun are seen as the eyes of the cosmic form. This is useful because it lets us, to the best of our mind’s ability, as a pointer to remembering Ishvara’s cosmic form when we see the moon or the sun.
 
Next, Arjuna describes Ishvara’s powerful prana shakti. Our prana powers all of our physiological functions. It enables us to digest food, move our hands and legs, circulate the blood and so on. Similarly, the cosmic prana of Ishvara also powers the universe, but is infinitely more powerful than our prana. This is revealed through the infinite arms seen by Arjuna, that represent the infinite prowess and power to perform actions.
 
Now, Arjuna begins to see a transformation in the cosmic form. It shifts from a pleasant picture to something a little different. Ishvara’s mouth begins to emit fire, representing the prana in him that consumes food. The food here, however, refers to the offerings we make in the form of sacrifices. The offering, or “hutam”, is consumed by Ishvara resulting in the fire from his mouth heating or powering the universe. This image reinforces the sacrificial wheel of the universe that was described in the third chapter.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 16, Chapter 11

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in 11.16, aadim, anantaroopam, aneka, antam, baahuhu, chapter 11 verse 16, madhyam, na, netram, pashyaami, punaha, sarvataha, tava, tvaam, udaraha, vaktra, vishvaroopa, vishveshvara

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anekabaahoodaravaktranetram pashyaami tvaam sarvatonantaroopam
naantam na madhyam na punastavaadim pashyaami vishveshvara vishvaroopa || 16 ||
 
I see you with numerous hands, bellies, mouths and eyes, with infinite forms from all sides. I see no end, middle and beginning of you, O lord of the universe, O cosmic form.
 
aneka : numerous
baahuhu : hands
udaraha : bellies
vaktra : mouths
netram : eyes
pashyaami : I see
tvaam : you
sarvataha : from all sides
anantaroopam : infinite forms
na : no
antam : end
madhyam : middle
punaha : and
tava : your
aadim : beginning
pashyaami : I see
vishveshvara : O lord of the universe
vishvaroopa : O cosmic form
 
Arjuna, in his hasty speech, fleshes out the detailed imagery of Ishvara’s cosmic form. He now sees an infinite number of forms, but his mind cannot in any way comprehend or point out what is being seen. It is only able to process parts of this image – hands, mouths, eyes and so on, but is not able to make sense of the whole picture. The fable of the blind men who could only touch parts of the elephant comes to mind here. One blind man thought that the trunk was a rope, the ear was a sieve and so on, but they did not realize that they were touching an elephant.
 
When Arjuna could not figure out how the various eyes, hands, bellies and mouth fit together, he tried to see whether the entire cosmic form had a shape or an outline to it. As a warrior, he was trained to look at a gigantic military formation and make sense of it based on its shapre. But his mind failed there as well. He was not able to locate where that cosmic form began, where its middle was, and where it ended. All our mental functions are useless when we cannot distinguish one thing from another.
 
We may be tempted to visualize the cosmic form based on some artistic rendition of this shloka that we would have seen in our childhood, especially when we were growing up in India. Most paintings of this shloka show Shri Krishna as a tall entity with many arms, legs and faces but we can still see the battlefield where he is standing on. However, Arjuna was completely engulfed and surrounded by this cosmic form in all three dimensions, “from all sides” as the shloka reads. It is impossible for a human to visualize and capture it accurately in a painting.
 
Through this shloka, Shri Krishna reveals the limitations of the mind with its tendency to chop up everything into fragments. It fails to understand Ishvara’s mind which is operating at the cosmic level. Our thoughts are limited to what we consider “me” and “mine”, but Ishvara’s thoughts take the entire universe into account. Furthermore, it also indicates that all names and forms arise from Ishvara and merge back into Ishvara.