Swami Kaivalyananda discussed part of the 10th chapter of the Gita, dealing with the Lord’s divine glories, or vibhutis. Here is one shloka;
‘aham atma gudhakesha sarvabhutashaya sthitah,
aham adis ca madhyam ca bhutanam anta eva ca.’

The Lord tells Arjuna, ‘I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all creation.’

Here, this is the first glory the Lord reveals of himself. This means that the highest devotee of the Lord should see Him as the Self of all beings. However, not everyone is capable of having that understanding. Therefore, the next twenty or so shlokas describe the Lord’s manifest glories in the universe. For example, ‘I am Vishnu among Adityas, the sun among lights, Marici among Maruts, and the moon among stars.’

Here, these divine glories are mainly divided into two groups. One is the glories which are described in the ancient epics, or Puranas. For example, Maruts are one class of divine beings, or devas. There are other groups mentioned by the Lord also, such as ‘pitras,’ ‘gandarvas,’ ‘rudras,’ etc. When we hear this, we aren’t familiar with these names, but for Arjuna, he was very familiar with these stories from the Puranas. That is why the Lord points these out. Everything that Arjuna considered as powerful, or important is said by the Lord.

For example, the Lord says, ‘I am the gambling of the gamblers, the stealing of thieves.’ There, we don’t consider gambling very important, but in those days, a kshatriya like Arjuna considered that very important. Do you remember how the Mahabharata war started? From gambling. In this way, the Lord points out everything that someone like Arjuna in that time considered as important. These are either important things from the Puranas, or manifest glories in this creation, like the sun, moon, stars, etc.

Some people who commentate on the Gita aren’t familiar with any of these Puranic names, so what do they do? They come up with a new ‘scientific’ explanation. For example, ‘maruts,’ may refer to some protons and electrons, etc. Swami said that that isn’t necessary. The Lord is simply saying things that Arjuna considered important in the ancient epics. No need to unnecessarily link everything with modern science!

Piyush,
June 24, 2007