The tenth chapter of Gītā called vibhūti-yoga, presents the glories of Īśvara. Even though he is all pervasive in everything, yet his glories are visible for us to appreciate Īśvara in every aspect of life, in another way of saying "bringing Īśvara in to our life". We start with beautiful things, then when our understanding get firmer, we also can see Īśvara even in the non-desirable things. His all pervasiveness has no exception. This truth of Īśvara is not easily understood, therefore must be told again with elaboration. Lord Krsna wants us to keep in mind that there is nothing that is not Īśvara. In whatever situation there are some glories, these glories of Īśvara are to be recognised.
śribhagavān uvāca
bhūya eva mahābāho śrnu me paramam vacah |
yatte'ham prīyamānāya vaksyāmi hitakāmyayā ||10.1||
Śribhagavān said: Indeed, Arjuna, the mighty armed! for your benefit, listen again to My words revealing the limitless, which I will tell you, who is pleased (by My words).
Lord Krsna addresses Arjuna as mahābāho - one who has mighty arms, just before he talks about his glories. This amount to say that this glory of Arjuna is belongs to Īśvara alone.
bhūya eva śrnu me paramam vacah - indeed again listen to my exalted words, stands for staying in the same topic which reveal the absolute reality in the form of Īśvara glories. yatte'ham prīyamānāya vaksyāmi - which I will tell you who is pleased, there is a growing clarity in Arjuna from the one who is filled with sorrow in the beginning, now seems to be having joy in him. hitakāmyayā - with a desire to bring good to you, in two folds way. One is deflating one's pride, because by knowing everything is belongs to Īśvara alone, there is no pride to claim as individual. Second, this truth of Īśvara will bring us to the understanding of the equation stated in tat tvam asi (you are that brahman) which brings the greatest good which is moksa.
If one recognises all glories as Īśvara's glories, one's pride and ahankāra - ego is dismissed. That I-ness is what stands between an individual and Īśvara. This deflation of I-ness is not easy because as one gains more knowledge of śāstra in this pursuit, generally one's ego will inflate. We do need to recognise our hard work to gives us some kind of self-esteem, since with low self-esteem it is difficult to own up this oneness between individual and Īśvara. So what should we do for not being caught in this situation? Suppose a person is capable of thinking properly, instead of being proud about it, thinking that "only I can make a right decision in this tough situation", he/she should recognise that all belongs to Īśvara. There is no personal accomplishment at all. Everything is Īśvara and whatever glory one has is Īśvara's glory. When one abides in the oneness between Īśvara, the world, and oneself, then there is no difference between glory of Īśvara and himself/herself.
Who is qualified to tell Īśvara's glories?
na me viduh suraganāh prabhavam na maharsayah |
ahamādirhi devānām maharsīnām ca sarvaśah ||10.2||
The whole host of God do not know My glory of coming into being as this world, nor do the sages because I am the cause of all the Gods and sages.
suraganāh - the whole host of gods, and maharsayah - great sages, who are considered all knowing, do not know Īśvara's glory in detail. Why? Because ahamādirhi devānām maharsīnām ca sarvaśah - because Īśvara is the cause of all the gods and sages. Being mithyā - manifestation of Īśvara would never know totally as satyam itself. Just like the son would never know in total what has experienced by his father even he has been told, because he was not there at that time, he can't have the same knowledge as the father. Similarly, Lord Krsna says, all these deities do not know his glory totally because he is the cause of all deities and sages. Here Lord Krsna pointed out that he is the most qualified person to tell the glory of Īśvara.
Our journey of knowing Īśvara from being limited in the certain form - ekarūpah, to all forms are his forms - viśvarūpah, and finally comes to formless Īśvara - nirguna-brahman which is me alone, where total freedom will be there.
yo mām ajamanādim ca vetti lokamaheśvaram |
asammūdhah sa martyesu sarvapāpaih pramucyate ||10.3||
The one who knows Me as unborn (not an effect), beginningless (not a cause), and the limitless Lord of the world, he among the mortals, being no longer deluded, is released from all pāpas.
Because Īśvara is the cause for everything which himself has no cause, therefore he is ajam - unborn. How can something exist but unborn? It is because he is anādim - beginningless, which there is no time for him to be non-exist, that is satyam. lokamaheśvaram - the Lord of all being, as the basis for the entire mithyā world to be there.
The one who recognises this Īśvara is free from delusion - yo vetti asammūdhah. Delusion of taking sat-cit-ānanda ātmā, the cause of everything as product, taking what is free from form as formful, and taking timeless as subject to time. In other words, ātmā is taken as anātmā. When one says "I am weak" etc, the weakness of the body is taken to be ātmā. Upon ātmā, one superimposes the weakness and in the same time upon the weakness one superimposes ātmā by taking the weakness to be one's nature. Thus one who has the knowledge of Īśvara, he/she also has the discriminative knowledge between immortal ātmā and mortal anātmā. Because of knowing one's nature as immortal ātmā, one is considered as immortal among mortal - sa martyesu. Such a person is liberated from all result of karma - sarvapāpaih pramucyate.
Next three verses are the reason why Īśvara is called as limitless Lord of all world. Since glorification is done here, thus what listed is something extraordinary.
buddhirjñānamasammohah ksamā satyam damah śamah |
sukham dukham bhavo'bhāvo bhayam cābhayameva ca ||10.4||
ahimsā samatā tustih tapo dānam yaśo'yaśah |
bhavanti bhāvā bhūtānām matta eva prthagvidhāh ||10.5||
The capacity to understand, knowledge, freedom from delusion, accommodation, truthfulness, restraint in behaviour, mastery over the ways of thinking, pleasure, pain, creation, destruction, fear, and fearlessness, and further.....
.....non-hurting, equanimity, contentment, religious discipline, charity, fame, ill-fame - these different dispositions (and things) of living beings - are all from Me alone.
matta eva - all these are only from me. These are the list he tells one by one so that nothing is left out. That is why this chapter is called vibhūti-yoga. Start from buddhih - capacity of inner instrument (antahkarana) to understand subject matter. Then the product of that buddhih which is jñānam - knowledge. asammohah - freedom from delusion. Whenever an object appears, it is known as it is. This means we pursue knowledge with discrimination. If we come to a hurried conclusion without an open mind to explore and understand, then there is delusion. Because senses and emotion can deceive us. They are capable of distortion and not really presenting objects as they are. Our perception can be born of our own fear and anxiety, and even can project things that are not there at all. This particular understanding is very important. Therefore always keep the open mind that there is fifty-percent that I might be wrong.
ksamā - accommodation. satyam - truthfulness, where the spoken word should be just as something is experienced by us, without subjectivity, in order to make another understand. damah - discipline with reference to external organs. It is control at the level of expression, a capacity not to be carried away by an action which has already arisen in our mind. śamah - a mastery over the very ways of thinking, when we don't yield to certain patterns of thinking which we know are harmful or useless. sukham - happiness and duhkham - affliction, all happiness and pain is according to the law of karma which is Īśvara alone. bhāvah - creation, including maintenance and destruction. bhayam - fears, also abhaya - fearless. He is the source of fear for people whose conduct are adharma, and also by owning which as oneself, one is free from fear. ahimsa - not hurting another living being deliberately. samatā - sameness of mind whether one get something desirable or undesirable. tustih - contentment, when the contentment is there, one become the master of any desire. tapah - religious austerities, or disciplining the body backed by control of the sense organs. danam - giving, in the form of proper distribution in keeping with one's capacity, and also the recipient must be worthy. Giving also can be in the form of time and knowledge. yaśas - fame, which is born of act of dharma. ayaśas - ill fame, which is born of act of adharma.
All these various things has mentioned so far are bhāvā bhūtānām - connected to living being and they are prthagvidhāh - many and varied, are from me alone - matta eva.
If these many and varied values are there, why are they not equally in us? They are distributed according to one's own karma which includes both present effort and past karma. Together they are the basis for all these various things. Because law of karma is Īśvara himself therefore they come from Īśvara alone.
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