Today Swami discussed the 11th chapter, continuing about the vishva rupa darshana. Here is one shloka,

‘Kalo’ smi lokaksayakrt pravrddho,
lokan samahartum iha pravrttah,
Rte’ pi tvam na bhavishyanti sarve,
ye’ vasthitah pratyanikeshu yodhah.’ 11.32

After Arjuna sees the fearful and destructive form of the Lord, he asks, ‘who are You?’ To this, the Lord says, ‘I am Death, intent on destroying all the worlds. Besides you, all of the warriors here will cease to exist.’

Here, the Lord is showing His destructive form to Arjuna. This is where some of us become confused. Why can’t the Lord reveal His nature as serene and blissful? Why this form, destroying everything with burning eyes and tongues? The answer is that destruction is part of the Lord’s creation. There is no point in expecting the Lord to create, sustain, and not destroy. So, we have to understand that destruction, or ‘samhara,’ is also part of the Lord’s five actions; creation, sustenance, destruction, revealing, and concealment.

Here, the main reason this form is shown to Arjuna is to make him aware that he is just an instrument. In this destructive form of the Lord, Arjuna sees the great warriors like Bhishma, Drona, and Karna entering at fast speed, to the jaws of Death. Arjuna says he sees bodies crushed in between the teeth of this form of the Lord, and the tongue pulling all pieces in and devouring them. In other words, even if one realizes that one is headed to death, that can’t save you. Even if you try to escape, the tongue of Death will pull you inside.

When Arjuna saw all this, he realized that the Lord Himself is performing this war, and that he is only an instrument. Some of us may put the blame for the war on Bhima, or Pancala, or Duryodhana, but none of that is ultimately true. Ultimately, the one responsible for this great destruction is God. Why? Because destruction is part of creation, and is unavoidable. Therefore, even though externally, Sri Krishna tried to maintain peace between the two groups, in His true nature, He had already determined everything. The entire war, all the destruction was predetermined by Kala, Time.

The Lord tells Arjuna also, ‘even if you don’t fight, I will accomplish what I have set to do, to kill all these here.’ Swami said, ‘even if Arjuna doesn’t fight, even if there is no war, this destruction must happen. If not a war, then maybe a tsunami.’ At this everyone laughed.

Piyush,
June 28, 2007