Skip to main content

Spectacular Explosion on the Sun - Vishwarūpa - the Lord's Cosmic Form

June 16, 2011

The Popular Science website had an amazing video a few days ago. This reminded me of Geeta 11-12, Sañjaya's description of the Lord's vishwaroopa darṣanam - vision of the Lord's cosmic form.

दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ||११-१२||

divi suuryasahasrasya bhavedyugapadutthitaa .
yadi bhaaH sadR^ishii saa syaadbhaasastasya mahaatmanaH .. 11-12..


If the splendour of a thousand Suns was to blaze all at once (simultaneously) in the sky, that would be like the splendour of that Mighty Being (great soul)..11-12

The splendour of the Lord being described in this manner is a common motif in hindu prayer. It occurs in the common invocation Gaṇeṣā, वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटी समप्रभ (vakratuNDa mahaakaaya sUryakoTI samaprabha), referring to Gaṇeṣā's brilliance being equivalent to a million suns; likewise, we praise Lord Ṣiva in the Lingaśṭakaṁ as दिनकर कोटी प्रभाकर लिंगं (dinakara koTI prabhaakara lingam), again one whose brilliance is equivalent to that of a million suns.

The video below will quite spectacularly demonstrate the aptness of the metaphor. See it in HD if you have the bandwidth and a good monitor.



How much more splendorous must be the Lord behind all this. I am aware that to the scientist, God doesn't enter the picture, this is simply a natural phenomenon. Of course, the Geeta itself makes clear that you cannot separate the Lord from His (or Her) Creation. The Lord is Creation. So, indeed you can easily say, Behold the Lord as the Sun!

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Geeta Dhyānaṁ 2 - Vyāsā's Vast Intellect

January 7, 2013 Previously on Geeta Jayanti, I had posted on the eternal debt of gratitude to Mother Geeta that is the basis of Geeta Dhyānaṁ. I love Param Pujya Gurudev 's commentary on the Geeta Dhyānaṁ. Pujya Gurudev's commentary is after the introduction to the Bhagavad Geeta in the commentary on Chapters 1 & 2 published by the the Chinmaya Mission. I personally believe it should be a book by itself. After invoking Mother Geeta, we now pay tribute to the wise Vyāsa Rishi - the Guru whose Jayanti marks Guru Pūrnima every year. Pujya Gurudev starts His tribute to Veda Vyāsā in his commentary on the 1st verse of the Dhyānaṁ. Vyāsa, the father of the Vedās, who, first collected, edited and published the Veda texts and who thereafter, gave us the dialectics of Vedānta in his Brahma Sūtra, himself a great man of realization, was indeed well fitted for the job. The ancient seer had both the mastery of the theoretical science of religion - Hinduism and also the practical expe

Geeta in Literature - IF by Rudyard Kipling

September 12, 2011 I came across a nice YouTube video that is an animation of Rudyard Kipling reading his famous poem IF . The full text sourced from wikisource is below: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same: If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And los

In every field, let Dharma flourish - क्षेत्रे क्षेत्रे धर्म कुरु

August 9, 2012 Swamini Vimalanandaji has done a series of talks at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) called "406 SMS – Sure Mantras for Success from Bhagwad Geeta" (item 406 at this AMA link ). In this she has a very interesting take on the 1st line of the Bhagavad Geeta. धर्मक्षेत्रे कुरुक्षेत्रे  १-१ dharmakShetre kurukShetre 1-1 <i> on the holy plain of Kurukshetra... </i> Swamini turns that slightly and says,  क्षेत्रे  क्षेत्रे  धर्म कुरु -   kShetre  kShetre  dharma kuru. Swamini goes on to establish that we can use this mantra to make that: "In every aspect of society,  must be pervaded by Dharma" Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post