We’re at a very important juncture wherein Arjuna is in the process of obtaining Bhagawan Krishna’s “Vishwa-Roopa” Darshan, which is one of the rarest of the rare opportunities to witness Bhagawan in this form. As Bhagawan Krishna provides Arjuna with a divine pair of eyes, he is able to see Bhagawan growing into a massive size wherein His head and feet portions are difficult to find! In other words, Bhagawan grows into an unlimited proportion wherein Arjuna finds it difficult to spot where is Bhagawan’s divine face and feet! Moreover, Bhagawan’s face and divine physical body is glittering with a bright light that comes from a combination of a thousand suns put together! This is why it is difficult for our normal eyes to spot Bhagawan’s true form and this is the sole reason behind Bhagawan Krishna gifting Arjuna with a divine pair of eyes, so that they can withstand this enormous brightness that is emitting from Bhagawan.
As Arjuna witnesses this spectacle for the next few minutes, Bhagawan cuts it short and once again returns back to His original human form and stands in front of Arjuna. Now, as Bhagawan Krishna smiles at Arjuna, Arjuna responds back thus, “Oh Bhagawan! After witnessing your divine form, I feel that the mission of my life has been accomplished! I’ve never seen such a spectacle like this before. After many years of being with you so close, today I realize that the person with whom I’m closely moving is not an ordinary person by any means! This person is Bhagawan Himself, walking with me, holding my hands so closely and consoling me every now and then to bring me on track towards “Dharma”! What kind of a gift you’ve given to me in this birth? Oh Bhagawan Krishna! Upon seeing your divine physical form like this in the “Vishwa-Roopam” mode, on one hand I’m extremely happy and I feel so fortunate! However, on the other hand, your real form looks so ferocious and with an extreme amount of “Tejas” which is unexplainable through words! Hence, I’m getting scared too! A sense of fear is gripping me now as I realize that the person who is very close to me is Bhagawan Vishnu Himself! On one side I was able to see that there are countless numbers of people who are going into your mouth, and on the other side, I was able to see countless numbers of people coming out of your mouth as well! On one side, I see enormous numbers of snakes (“Naagaas”) entering your mouth! What a sight this is! I’ve never seen such a thing in my life till now!”
Arjuna continues thus, “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! More than being able to witness the present, I’m able to witness the future too in your divine physical form – I’m seeing Duryodhana and Co. entering into your mouth at the end of this Kurukshetra war! Is this going to be the end result of this ghastly war? Is the entire Kaurava army going to be destroyed? Of course, notwithstanding, I’m able to see myself going into your mouth in the future! I’m able to see Bhagawan Brahma coming out of your mouth! I’m seeing Bhagawan Shiva coming out of you! I’m seeing this entire world getting destroyed by you! Upon looking at all these sights, I’m getting an inevitable fear within me! I’m unable to take it beyond a point! Oh Bhagawan! Please help this poor Arjuna in coming out of this fear now! Even though I’m happy that I got an opportunity to see you like this, my fear is overcoming my happiness!”
As Arjuna says thus, he is in tears – Both because of happiness and fear! It is this same “Vishwa-Roopam” which Sanjaya is also able to see during the same time as well, along with Arjuna! Readers might remember that in our earlier episodes, we’ve discussed that Sanjaya is narrating the entire proceedings of the war verbatim to King Dhritarashtra, sitting at Hastinapura palace. This is where readers must be very watchful here – Even though we might be proceeding with the Bhagawad Gita in depth, we would go back and forth to Sanjaya every now and then, because we should understand that this entire narrative of the Bhagawad Gita that we’re seeing here is being said by Sanjaya to King Dhritarashtra! We’ve witnessed earlier that Sage Vyaasa has gifted a pair of divine eyes to Sanjaya through which he is able to witness the “live” proceedings of the war while sitting at Hastinapura, which is several hundred kilometres away from Kurukshetra. Thus, as Sanjaya is narrating the Bhagawad Gita to King Dhritarashtra, when he describes the eleventh “Adhyaaya”, Sanjaya expresses his shock and happiness in witnessing Bhagawan Krishna in this divine form!
Thus, we should understand that, it is not only Arjuna who is obtaining the realization that Bhagawan Krishna is a divine incarnation of Bhagawan Vishnu, but also Sanjaya and King Dhritarashtra as well! Of course, King Dhritarashtra had seen this earlier as well, when Bhagawan Krishna went as a messenger to broker peace between the Paandavas and Kauravas. We’ve seen this earlier. But now, even though King Dhritarashtra is unable to see Bhagawan Krishna’s divine form directly, the divine attributes are being explained in detail by Sanjaya, who also gets an opportunity along with Arjuna to witness this spectacle! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall take this discussion forward further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 