Everyday Geeta

February 28, 2013 Concluding the series on the Lord's vishwarūpa , we now come to Arjuna's declaration: अदृष्टपूर्वं हृषितोऽस्मि दृष्ट्वा भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे | तदेव मे दर्शय देव रूपं प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ||११-४५|| adR^iShTapUrva.n hR^iShito.asmi dR^iShTvA bhayena cha pravyathitaM mano me . tadeva me darshaya deva rUpaM prasIda devesha jagannivAsa .. 11\-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. Like Arjuna, if this journey leaves you fascinated, bewitched, puzzled, dis-satisfied and yet wanting to know more, Param Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji has conveyed his sympathies in his commentary, The Holy Geeta : A limited human intellect is not the instrument with which one can perceive in one sweep the Infinite majesty of the Universal-Form. It must necessarily stand staggered at the vastness of the concept and the ...

February 24, 2013 I just got forwarded an email about an extraordinary woman named Valliamma, reference in an article "Women Extraordinaire" by Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the Hindustan Times. The author quotes Gandhi on Valliamma (the more faded of the two pictures shown above): “Valliamma R Munuswami Mudaliar was a young girl of Johannesburg only 16 years of age. She was confined to bed when I saw her. As she was a tall girl, her emaciated body was a terrible thing to behold. ‘Valliamma, you do not repent of your having gone to jail?’ I asked. ‘Repent? I am even now ready to go to jail again, if I am arrested’, said Valliamma. ‘But what if it results in your death?’, I pursued. ‘I do not mind it. Who would not love to die for one’s motherland?’ was the reply.” The article is a must read, although I think it is shameful that Hindustan Times did not bother to publish the pictures of these remarkable women, especially since the Gandhi archives in New Delhi or Mumbai would have fr...

February 24, 2013 Continuing the series on the Lord's vishwarūpa , we now move from the Lord's magnificent creation to the उग्र or fierce form. In verses 11-26 & 27, Arjuna says: अमी च त्वां धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्राः सर्वे सहैवावनिपालसङ्घैः । भीष्मो द्रोणः सूतपुत्रस्तथासौ सहास्मदीयैरपि योधमुख्यैः ||११-२६|| वक्त्राणि ते त्वरमाणा विशन्ति दंष्ट्राकरालानि भयानकानि | केचिद्विलग्ना दशनान्तरेषु सन्दृश्यन्ते चूर्णितैरुत्तमाङ्गैः ||११-२७|| amī ca tvāṁ dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putrāḥ sarve sahaivāvanipālasaṁghaiḥ bhīṣmo droṇaḥ sūtaputras tathāsau sahāsmadīyair api yodhamukhyaiḥ 11.26 vaktrāṇi te tvaramāṇā viśanti daṁṣṭrākarālāni bhayānakāni kecid vilagnā daśanāntareṣu saṁdṛśyante cūrṇitair uttamāṅgaiḥ 11.27 All the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra with hosts of kings of the earth, Bhīshma, Droṇa and the son of a charioteer, Karṇa, with the warrior chiefs of ours; Enter in haste, into Your mouths, with terrible teeth, and fearful to behold. Some are found caught in the gaps between the teeth with their heads cr...

February 14, 2013 Continuing the posts on the glory of the Lord's vishwarūpa , I present this composite image that shows El Gordo, a “monster galaxy cluster” from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Recall Arjuna’s statement in 11-11: अनादिमध्यान्तमनन्तवीर्यमनन्तबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम् | पश्यामि त्वां दीप्तहुताशवक्त्रं स्वतेजसा विश्वमिदं तपन्तम् ||११-१९|| anādimadhyāntam anantavīryam anantabāhuṁ śaśisūryanetram paśyāmi tvāṁ dīptahutāśavaktraṁ svatejasā viśvam idaṁ tapantam 11.19 I see You without beginning, middle, or end; infinite in power; of endless arms; the sun and moon as Your eyes; the burning fire Your mouth, heating the whole universe with Your radiance. According to an article by Charles Q. Choi at Space.com : The monster galaxy cluster has a mass about 2 quadrillion (that's 2 followed by 15 zeroes) times that of the sun, making it "the most massive known cluster in the distant universe." The Lord's vishwarūpa, or cosmic form, through such amazing pictur...

February 12, 2013 Continuing the posts on the glory of the Lord's vishwarūpa , isn't NASA's picture above, a wonderful representation of verse 11-14? नभःस्पृशं दीप्तमनेकवर्णं व्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रम् | ११-२४ । nabhaḥspṛśaṁ dīptam anekavarṇaṁ vyāttānanaṁ dīptaviśālanetram 11-24 Your Form touching the sky, flaming in many colours, with mouths wide open, with large fiery eyes The picture is sourced from NASA's Picture of Day website. According to the entry for March 23, 2009 (when the picture was published): It may look like a grazing seahorse, but the dark object toward the image right is actually a pillar of smoky dust about 20 light years long. The curiously-shaped dust structure occurs in our neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud, in a star forming region very near the expansive Tarantula Nebula. The energetic nebula is creating a star cluster, NGC 2074, whose center is visible just off the top of the image in the direction of the neck of the seahorse. The represent...

February 11, 2013 Continuing the posts on the glory of the Lord's vishwarūpa , in 11-8, we see that Śrī Kṛṣṇa blesses Arjuna with divine vision: दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ||११-८|| divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ paśya me yogam aiśvaram 11.8 I give You the divine vision; with this behold My divine power of YOGA. Today, thanks to satellite imagery and the technological wonders that make up the Hubble Telescope and the Chandra Observatory, we are able to see extraordinary images such as the one of the night sky over India on the night of Deepavali on November 12, 2012 taken from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime view of southern Asia. In future posts, I will look at Chapter 11 through some jaw-dropping NASA images. Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post