Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

The Great Lord withdrew his Cosmic Form and appeared once again in that charming, beautiful, human form as Sri Krishna of Dvaraka – to the great joy of Arjuna, who wanted to see that friendly comrade because he was too frightened of that Cosmic vision.

Sanjaya uvacha, ity arjunam vasudevast athoktva svakam rupam darsayamasa bhuyah (11.50): The great Sanjaya, who knew everything that was happening inside and outside, says here, “Having told Arjuna that this is a very difficult thing to visualise for ordinary mortals, the Lord withdrew Himself into the normal form of Yadava Sri Krishna; and then He consoled him – ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid’ – as a parent would pat a child on the back. ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, Arjuna. All is well. Be happy; don’t bother.’” Asvasayamasa cha bhitamenam: He consoled the frightened Arjuna.

Arjuna uvacha: drshtvedam manusham rupam tava saumyam janardana; Idanim asmi samvrttah sachetah prakrtim gatah (11.51): Arjuna now exclaims, “O Master, I was out of my wits! I did not know where I was, or what I was seeing. I had lost myself. Now I have come back to myself after seeing You in this kind, beautiful, friendly form. Having seen this human form which You have now assumed, which is calm, sober, friendly, beautiful, charming, I have come back to myself. I am a normal man now. At that time I was not a normal person. I had lost myself completely. I did not know what was happening to me. Great Master, be gracious!”

Sri bhagavan uvacha. Sudurdarsam idam rupam drshtvan asi yan mama, deva apy asya rupasya nityam darsana-kankshinah (11.52). Now, summing up this great theme of the Visvarupa Darsana, the Lord Himself speaks. Devairatrapi vichikitsitam pura na hi suvijneyamanuresha dharmah (Katha 1.1.21) is a parallel passage in the Kathopanishad. Nachiketas pleads that the Eternal Secret be revealed to him. “Not even all the gods know this. Subtle is this matter,” is Yama’s reply to Nachiketas. Likewise, Bhagavan Sri Krishna now speaks to Arjuna. “Impossible it is to behold this Form. You have seen it; but it is not easy to see it. The gods are also eager to visualise this, to have darshan of this Great Form. Every day they eagerly await that occasion when they can have this darshan. But I cannot easily be known, not even by the gods, because the means that they employ to have darshan, the vision of this Supreme Form, are inadequate. The means and the end should be on a common pedestal. An inadequate means cannot suffice for the achievement of an end that is supremely adequate. Study of the Vedas and scriptures, and intense physical austerity, mortification of flesh, any kind of charity and philanthropic deed that you perform, and sacrifices of any kind – these will not suffice. No mortal deed can take you to the Immortal.” Naham vedair na tapasa na danena na chejyaya, sakya evam-vidho drashtum drshtvan asi mam yatha (11.53).

Bhaktya tu ananyaya sakya (11.54): The word ‘ananya’ comes many a time in the Bhagavadgita. Sri Krishna never forgets to use this word – ananya. Of course, everybody has devotion for God in some measure. We are all devotees of God in some way; but are we ananya? Ananya means undivided, non-separate, non-externalised, whole-souled love. Now, many of us may not be able to entertain such a thing. We love God and pray to God, we worship God and consider Him as the Ultimate Reality and the aim and goal of our life – accepted; but yet, there is some string that pulls our devotion back in another direction altogether. We have loves of different types which are connected to this world and, therefore, these devotions are secondary in their nature and fall into the category of gaunabhakti. Because our devotions are more ritualistic in their nature, externalised in their nature, we express our devotion in some form outside; but the ananya bhakti that is spoken of here is the devotion of our soul for the Universal Soul.

It is not the mind, the intellect and the feeling that love God. Most of our affections are psychological. We use only our mind  in thinking of God, and even in loving God. The soul, the spirit, does not always come up. We are not possessed by the spirit within our own selves. We are temporarily possessed by certain emotions, but these emotions are not devotion. We may be intensely stimulated for some time when we hear charming, stirring, devotional music, or when stimulating sankirtan is going on in a chorus or in a group. Yet the pulls of the earth which limit this devotion that has temporarily taken possession of us through emotion will manifest themselves after the satsanga is over, and we will be the same Mr. So-and-so. It would not have made much difference in our practical daily life. The practical daily conduct of business is also to be a part of devotion to God, and devotion to God is not to be confined to the chapel or the puja room or the temple. We should not say, “I shall finish my puja and come.” We cannot come from the puja. It is a whole-souled dedication of ours.

When the soul rises into action, the mind and the body cannot stand it. Very rarely our soul acts. In deep sleep we are possessed by our soul, and so we are immensely calm, quiet and happy. In the state of deep sleep, there is a subdual of all distraction for the time being. And in intense agony at the point of death, the soul also rises and is in complete possession of our personality. When we are sure that death is imminent and we do not have permission to live even for a second more, then the soul rises up into an action of agony. The third occasion when the soul rises is in an intense fulfilment of passionate action, whether it is political or personal. Where one loses oneself completely in a frenzy of behaviour and action, at that time temporarily – for the flash of a second, as it were – the soul takes possession of us for a minute, for a second. It is only in these three conditions that the soul acts: at the greatest point or height of intensity when our longing is fulfilled, or when we are dying, or when we are sleeping. At other times the soul is sleeping, and only our mind is acting.

It is necessary for the soul to act in devotion to God – not merely because we are dying, or we are fulfilling some desire, or we are sleeping. This is a fourth kind of state altogether in which the soul acts. The thrill, the stimulation, the rejoicing, the horripilation, the sense of loss of self-consciousness, and the sense of being possessed by universal consciousness characterise this devotion gradually, stage by stage. This alone can permit us to have this Great Vision. No action, no tapasya, no study, no ritual, no charity can help us, because they are all in the world of space and time.

Bhaktya tu ananyaya sakya aham evam-vidho’rjuna, jnatum drashtum cha tattvena praveshtum cha parantapa (11.54): There are three processes: knowing, implementing and materialising the love of God. First of all it is a vision and knowledge – jnatum drashtum. To know and to visualise, to see and to understand, has been bequeathed to Arjuna. He understood because of the explanation given by the Lord Himself as to what It is. He saw It, but he did not enter into It. He was standing outside It, as it were. He was looking at it. But it has to be borne in mind that the fulfilment of God-consciousness, or God-realisation, consists not merely in having the vision of God or knowing Him in a special characterisation as described here. We have to merge ourselves with It. The Atman becomes Brahman. The soul enters into the maker of all things. “This devotion, which is the supreme means of knowing Me, will enable one to know Me, to visualise Me, and finally to enter into Me, which is salvation of the soul.”

Sankaracharya tells us in his commentary that the last verse of this chapter is the quintessence of all teaching. That is his opinion. The last verse is mat-karma-krin mat-paramo mad-bhaktah sanga-varjitah, nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu yah sa mam eti pandava (11.55): “O Arjuna! Such a person will reach Me who performs all action and duty for My sake – mat-karma-krim; who regards Me as supreme above all things anywhere – mat-paramo; who is intensely devoted to Me through the day and night for all time – mad-bhaktah; who is not attached to anything and is free from contamination by anything in the world – sanga-varjitah; who has no enmity with anybody and doesn’t hate anyone, and no one is an enemy of that person – nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu – no living being is antagonistic to that person and he is not antagonistic to any living being – such a person reaches Me.”