Bhagavad-gita 11th Chapter Glimpse

In this episode, I speak with Syama about the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Having heard Krishna speak about himself as permeating the universe as the soul of the world, Arjuna is inspired to ask Krishna to show himself directly in his universal form, the universe, time and space itself as a person.

Transcript

Hello Yogi,

Welcome to my podcast.

I'm Aiko and on this show we explore ways to put spiritual theory into sustainable practice.

So welcome again,

Finally back after a winter break.

We are here in Costa Rica.

Welcome to Satsang with Mooji.

Welcome to the Satsang with Mooji.

Really the practice is to think of the most prominent example of any given category and that can represent Krishna in nature.

He had also said in earlier chapters that He is behind everything in the universe.

The things you see in the universe are like pearls strung on a thread and and he is that thread.

So you know as people engage in this in this practice you know like they will have their everyone will have their own experience of God and sometimes we are I say a bit childish in the beginning and we think that our way to see God is the only way to see God.

So we were talking about the four core verses of the Bhagavad Gita which are found in this tenth chapter and we made a parallel to the blind man and the elephant that story where blind men are standing around an elephant touching different parts of it and kind of saying what an elephant is like an elephant is like a hard you know like the person touching the tusk is saying you know like the elephant is like it's like this kind of hard bone and someone touching the tail is saying no no an elephant is kind of like a rope so the idea is to for those who are doing spiritual practice and trying to commune with God to come together and and share notes and actually all and I'll get a fuller picture.

Yeah because ultimately they're all right this simply their vision is not extended to the entire truth but in their small thing in the small view it's it's correct.

Yes so like what they say is true the thing the thing that is not true is that you know that the others are not seeing you know that's that's the issue you say.

Yeah it is very nice and very fundamental chapter so what what is chapter 11 about is the yoga?

Theophany.

Which is a super interesting word maybe you want to explain the meaning the etymology?

Yeah so it's not a very commonly used word in English so it's it's like epiphany but instead of epi in the word you put theo like God so the theophany so it's to if an epiphany is like you have a moment of clarity then and a theophany is like for a moment you're able to see God like it like to have like a direct divine vision.

Very beautiful so how how this divine vision comes in this chapter to Arjuna?

Yes it's it becomes it was maybe not exactly what Arjuna was expecting.

That often happens in our life it's never what we expecting.

Yes and especially when we ask God for things the things may not be as we expect.

Yeah so he so you know so after and of course again we should remember here that we were on a battlefield Krishna has asked Arjuna to to fight and it's it's a very tough situation because there are people on the other side that Arjuna is attached to so so that is the context.

I mean Krishna's asking Arjuna to fight his own relatives and to kill them which on the parallel represents like ourselves Arjuna fighting our inner ghosts our blockages which are our attachments and in the parallel of Arjuna's relatives.

Yes so it's not yeah of course like it's not about killing external enemies but you know we can easily you know make parallels here with how how we are shaped by by others and if we are shaped by others in a way that is not not helpful that is like that is toxic for example then we actually need to heal that in ourselves and here we have like a very extreme example of that just to kind of you know it's just it's like it's made in a story form in a way to kind of capture your your attention but it is about yeah this thing that we all need to do we need to kind of individuate not just kind of follow our mental ideas that are imprinted from other people and our our underst our maybe also misunderstandings of other people.

So in the course of trying to encourage Arjuna in this difficult task Krishna is talking about how he is Arjuna's friend to kind of encourage him like like Krishna is explaining how he is how he is God like he's saying I'm behind everything in the universe you can see me and this in that way this is to inspire Arjuna like if I have God on my side and as my friend then like I can't really fail this is kind of what Krishna is trying to tell Arjuna through all this.

The point here is also I think that Krishna is always on our side right yes wherever we are and whoever we are because he's also on the other side but in their own way and they have their own experience with it and they have their own teachings to learn but in this specific case we are looking at now it's just with Arjuna.

Yeah yeah so so like Krishna has been trying to encourage Arjuna in this way but and Arjuna is like but can you show me this like I want to like he becomes inspired like it sounds very amazing that's that's that Krishna is everything and he is his friend he is like the soul of the universe but Arjuna is asking Krishna to show him that like directly like show his universal form.

And how would you explain this like because we are given parallels with our life so how would you explain this need of wanted to see that Krishna is God while you kind of know that he's God but why there is this this need of experience?

Yes it can have I mean the same kind of like similar looking desires to see God can come from from different you can come from different backgrounds for example and let's say you have an atheist and he's he's asking like okay like like he's saying saying something like I will believe in God if you can show him to me so then so then let's say God shows himself to him but he will always be able to explain it away afterwards anyway by saying oh but like maybe that was just a hallucination or so like seeing God is not so meaningful if we don't have like the rights or like a mature relationship with God.

So you mean like now after all Arjuna went through so he had some kind of base some grounding of what God is about has some understanding he has some detachment and then now with some knowledge also then he's ready to see God but not everyone can just experience God just waking up in the morning and saying God come here and show yourself right?

Yeah I mean the funny thing is he you know because he's trying to like at this point he he's he's getting more more and more convinced to like do his to like do his task but he's not like you know kind of like doing it yet he's he's still kind of so of course like Arjuna is actually like a very advanced yogi you can say I mean he's actually a perfect yogi but but in this case he's also kind of playing a role here for to kind of to kind of show us so he's speaking a lot on our behalf when he's talking to Krishna yes so he is actually able I mean he is like in a sense he's able to kind of handle this kind of direct perception of God like but even so even he does become fearful when he see like when when Krishna actually gives him divine vision like gives him divine eyes he tells him like like it's a form that you can't see without a certain set of spiritual eyes so he kind of grants him those eyes and that's and lets them see the universe as as a as a person as the form of time how this happened it is that simple Krishna just says I give you divine vision just see me and then he does and Arjuna is able to see the past the present and the future all at once he's able to see the whole universe in one place and it's kind of frightening because he sees how all the the warriors on the battlefield are just like running into the mouth of time and into the mouth of death and Krishna is trying to encourage him you're saying like so so like you see here that you can already see the the outcome of the battle because you're able to see the future so now you just have to play it out like it's just like a manuscript and you just have to play your part but the vision is so like astonishing and frightening that Krishna is like Arjuna is experiencing divine fear like we often hear that fear is something material and love is spiritual but here Arjuna is experiencing divine fear and Krishna will after showing him that this form will still have to trying to convince him so like that also makes a point to us that it's it's like the main thing that that should be our concern is not just to like see God but because even something like that may not convince us to actually do the work that is needed so our main concern is to do our most needed internal work and then we will be able to see God in the end in the in the way we desire to see him so my question or maybe like what I understood so far is that that like anyway the future is written there so Arjuna is gonna kill his enemies but the point why all this is happening is to understand and to change the consciousness behind the actions because this this will change then the the outcome of of yourself of the of the soul not the outcome of the act in per said but the outcome of your consciousness is that correct yes definitely yeah like if you say that it's in it's in Arjuna's astrological chart that he will kill those those people in battle like like maybe that's it's not so meaningful like maybe that just means he yeah he won that battle and that's it like materially like he won like a material war but he is here asked to actually uproot his false sense of self which is anything if he can do that through the battle yeah like that is the point and and to like do it with like with the awareness that God God is with him and of course it's with everyone there like you said also the battlefield is not not just not just with him so it's very much about the consciousness or the the the idea behind the act that's the main thing that's where we have to work on yes certainly like as humans we are very little aware of why we do the things we do we just kind of act on autopilot and then we we have this little thing in the brain that explains to us afterwards why we did that but this is kind of like a storyteller just kind of to make it make it sound good but here Arjuna is asked to actually to actually like do the practice that will actually let you do something out of how you say like the right yeah like with the right purpose mind not just kind of act cool so so what's next what's gonna happen then in chapter 12 yeah so they're having kind of cooled down a little bit a little bit from the this intense vision he had he's asking Krishna about what is the preferred method of meditation is it to meditate on on Krishna as the all-pervading spirit or as as a personal form and of course Krishna will elaborate on this a little bit I actually one part that I forgot was that when one can argue when Arjuna has had enough of this intense vision he asks Krishna to to show the form that he's used to again so Krishna does that in in two steps he first he first shows him the kind of normal form but it but it has four arms which is kind of like a symbol that it that it's God that's often seen and if you look at Hindu art Narayan has has four arms one is holding a conch one is holding a lotus one is holding a discus and one is holding a club so that is to kind of like make the point like like that he is God I mean of course that he that he can show the universal form clearly shows his God but this forearm form is like a classical depiction of God but then then he he goes to goes again to just showing the showing his two arms two armed form and and this is actually a higher form than the universal form why because like when Arjuna asks to see the universal form it is you kind of have the idea all like he wants to see something more extraordinary but it's actually when he goes back to his normal form that you understand you understand that that's more extraordinary that's that he is the universe and everything like he is controlling everything in the past and the present in the future and in all the like multiverse but still he is able to relate with you as a as a human like as you are speak your language yeah this also shows how actually Krishna is everything like God is universal in all sense he's there he's with you he's your best friend he's your enemy he's everything and he's there for you yes there was an interesting insight you said there he's your enemy yes like he comes in the form of an enemy to kind of yeah exactly they're not real enemies I mean the so-called enemy that we call enemy are just there to teach us something so that's also God yes it said our teacher sometimes says that that if you if you want to purify your heart then you should you should worship your your enemies yeah okay so I think for today it's it's all and we're gonna see you next time thank you thank you I hope this episode fulfill its purpose of inspiring you if you liked it feel free to share it give a review or a rating subscribe and if you have any questions please get in touch at I call yoga thank you calm namaste

Reviews

Thank you Aiko, and your partner for doing these insights. I am ready the Gita and finding it really helpful ☺️🙏x