Today, Swami discussed the first part of the 11th chapter, The Yoga of the Universal Form.’ Here is the first shloka, said by Arjuna;
‘Madanugrahaya paramam guhyam adhyatma samjnitam,
Yat tvayoktam vacas tena moho ‘yam vigato mama.’

Here, Arjuna tells the Lord, ‘out of compassion, You have instructed this highest secret of spirituality. By this, my delusion is gone.’

Here, we can understand that after so much instruction, a small dent at least was created in Arjuna. He finally understood who was sitting in front of him in the chariot; the Supreme Lord Himself. At least this much was achieved. Therefore, he requests Sri Krishna to give him the experience of the glories that were told by the Lord.

This is where the importance of the Avatar comes. Maybe there are some people that claim, ‘I am the sun, the moon, the stars. I am the Self in all creation!’ Ok, they can say this, but here, the Lord actually SHOWS it to Arjuna. First, he explains that He Himself is manifest in all the glories of the universe, then he REVEALS it to Arjuna. Nobody but an Avatar can do that.
That’s not all. It is said that this instruction is only once in all history. Why? Because after the Mahabharata War, Arjuna has already forgotten what the Lord told him. So he says, ‘Lord, please again instruct me that.’ There, what does Krishna say? He says, ‘Oh, I cannot do that again. At that time, I was united in the highest Yoga.’

Thus, this is the specialty of the Gita. Sri Rama gave some instruction also, but it was never in this bhava, of supreme Yoga. Here, Krishna is not speaking as an individual, but as the Supreme Self. That’s why He says, ‘among Vrishnis, I am Vasudeva, and among Pandavas, I am Arjuna.’ There, he says that he is Vasudeva, the son of Devaki. There, that is not from the level of being the son Devaki, but from the level of the Supreme Self, seeing all parts of creation, even if the body of Krishna as a mere portion.

Then there is the matter of Arjuna. He says here, ‘my delusion is removed.’ However, what happens? Even after seeing Krishna universal form, he again falls into delusion. That’s why he has to again request Krishna to instruct him after the war. How is that explained? That is the inexplicable power of Maya. The Guru instructs us, and our delusion is removed. But what happens? When we go back in the world, it comes back. Just like the lake covered with moss, when a rock is thrown; we see the water for some time, then it’s again covered. Similarly, when hearing satsang, when listening to the Guru, we feel that our delusion is removed. However, not soon after, we are back where we started; delusion.

From Arjuna’s incident, we can console ourselves. Arjuna not only heard instruction directly form Sri Krishna. He also was shown the Lord’s divine form, which is unperceptible through the senses. Still, what happens? Arjuna becomes a slave to delusion again. So for our case, this is a consolation.

Piyush,
June 25, 2007