www.vishwarūpa.infinite - Divine Vision At Our Fingertips #8

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 significances of its sheer dimensions. That the Lord is the ONE dynamic Truth behind every organ of activity and in every existent thing is indicated here when Arjuna says "I SEE THEE OF BOUNDLESS FORM ON EVERY SIDE, WITH MANIFOLD ARMS, STOMACHS, MOUTHS AND EYES." This is not to be construed as a caricature of Truth. This warning is necessary for all hasty artists, who, inspired by the theme, generally rush to this field of thought, to represent this Cosmic Form with their brushes and colours. And they all but fail miserably!

Śrī Kṛṣṇa in 11-49, provides a familiar reassurance:
मा ते व्यथा मा च विमूढभावो
दृष्ट्वा रूपं घोरमीदृङ्ममेदम् |
व्यपेतभीः प्रीतमनाः पुनस्त्वं
तदेव मे रूपमिदं प्रपश्य ||११-४९||
mA te vyathA mA cha vimUDhabhAvo
dR^iShTvA rUpaM ghoramIdR^iN^.hmamedam.h .
vyapetabhIH prItamanAH punastva.n
tadeva me rUpamidaM prapashya .. 11\-49..
Be not afraid, nor bewildered on seeing such a terrible-Form of Mine as this; with your fear dispelled and with gladdened heart, now behold again this Form of Mine.

We're in good company. Yashoda maiya swooned at the vision of the Lord's cosmic form. Arjuna trembled and pleaded with the Lord to return to his chaturbhuja rūpa, his divine but familiar form with the conch, disc, mace and lotus. We simply have to turn to our own altar and invoke that feeling of अद्भुतम् (wonder) at the fascinating, always available विशवरूप, the cosmic form of the infinite form available at our very own finger tips.

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

PS: Picture shown above is of the altar at the 2012 Singapore Gita Jayanti. This years' Gita havan in Singapore is on March 24th.

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...

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

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...

Everyday Geeta

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