Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11 - Lesson 14

INTRODUCTION

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Krsna now appears in front of Arjuna first in His four-handed beautiful divine form that Arjuna is comfortable with, and finally as Vasudeva Krsna, in His gentle human form that Arjuna is so familiar with. Arjuna has now seen Krsna in all His forms. The true universal form of virata rupa or visvarupa, that Arjuna found fearsome; the beautiful, much gentler, adorable form with four hands, and finally back to the human form that Arjuna has always known. Krsna says even the great sages, the enlightened masters, have not seen the sights that Arjuna has seen. That is very true. Enlightened masters cannot see visions. When an enlightened being sees another enlightened being, it is in the energy form. To be able to see the gross physical form, both need to readjust their frequencies. No amount of spiritual practices and knowledge can make this happen. This is the space of bhakti, pure devotion.

Ramakrsna says about one’s relationship to a master: ‘The love of a chaste wife for her husband, the attachment of a miser to his hoarded wealth, the craving of a pleasure seeker for sensual pleasures, all these rolled into one and directed towards the master is true bhakti, devotion.’Krsna concludes this chapter with a clear direction of what a devotee should do to reach Him. It is as simple as one, two, three. ‘Work for Me,’ He says, ‘work for My mission. Surrender to Me as the supreme with no reservations. Have no attachment to whatever you do, leave the results to Me, surrender the fruite of your action to Me. Look upon everyone as your own Self, without dislike and hatred.’ All disciples and devotees must understand this.

Portrait of a man with a peacock feather

I tell my disciples: ‘If you sit and gaze at me and feel joyful seeing my form, you are chasing me. At best you get eye candy and brain candy, sweet words and a sweet form that makes you feel happy. Then you think I will be leaving soon and feel unhappy. You miss the present moment of my being with you and speculate with regret on my absence that may follow. ’If instead, you work for my mission, spreading my word and teachings, I shall chase you. I shall always be with you, wherever you are! You do not even need to come to me. I shall come to you. ’May the blessings of the supreme Lord be upon you all! Thus ends the eleventh chapter named Visvarupa Darshana Yoga of the Upanisad of Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Yoga dealing with the Science of the Absolute, in the form of the dialogue between Sri Krsna and Arjuna.

GOALS:

To cognize the importance
of preparing ourselves to
receive gifts such as this,
from the Divine.

ASSESSMENTS

What is another name for Visvarupa?,

what does it mean? What cognition have you received during this Chapter 11?

How can the relationship between Arjuna and Sri Krsna be compared to a Guru-disciple relationship?

ART OF THE DAY

ART OF THE DAY:

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Paper

Sketch pen or Pencil,

colour pens

PROCEDURE option 1: draw Krsna in His four-handed beautiful divine form. option 2: draw the 3 visions that arjuna has of Krsna The true universal form that Arjuna found fearsome the beautiful, divine form with four hands, and the human form of Krsna

INFERENCE The sights that Arjuna has seen is the space of bhakti, pure devotion.

ACTIVITY OF THE DAY

ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:

MEDATATION

PROCEDURE:

I think it is now time for us to meditate to experience what Arjuna is seeing. Once again the two points:

Is it possible to experience Krsna consciousness? Yes, it is possible.

What is the qualification? Our being present here is enough. Now all we need to do is put our whole consciousness intensely into the meditation. The meditation will take at least 20 minutes. Please sit straight and close your eyes. Pray intensely to the Parabrahma Krsna, universal consciousness, in whatever name you know, in whatever form you know. Pray to that energy to give a glimpse of His being to you, a glimpse of the experience that Arjuna received and which all the enlightened masters experienced.

Pray to this universal energy. It responds to your thoughts. Don't think your prayers are dead words. They are living communication. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible. Concentrate and bring your attention between your eyebrows, on your ajna cakra. Slowly, but very deeply concentrate on your ajna cakra. Without forcing yourself, put your awareness naturally on your ajnacakra. Slowly start visualizing the whole Universe moving inside your head. Feel this clearly inside your head. The space that is in front of you, in your inner space, the whole universe is moving. See the sun, moon and all the planets. Visualize this clearly, intensely. Slowly relax the body, be one with the universal consciousness. Feel the experience of being one with the Universe.

You are seeing clearly the sun, moon, stars and planets. Just disappear into the universal consciousness. Forget your name, your form, all the conditionings, your profession, your gender, and your country, everything about yourself. Forget your identity and see the whole universe intensely. Just see the moving universe intensely, all the planets, the stars, all the suns, moons.

Disappear into the universal consciousness. Lose the identity, the root cause of all the thoughts; let it disappear into the universal consciousness. Experience the bliss, the fulfilling bliss of the whole universe. Expand and disappear into that universe. Dissolve into the universal consciousness. Be in nityananda, eternal bliss

WORKSHOP OF THE DAY

WORKSHOP OF THE DAY:

VAAKYARTHA SADHAS

Topic of today's discussion is "If you sit and gaze at me and feel joyful seeing my form, you are chasing me. At best you get eye candy and brain candy, sweet words and a sweet form that makes you feel happy. Then you think I will be leaving soon and feel unhappy. You miss the present moment of my being with you and speculate with regret on my absence that may follow. If instead, you work for my mission, spreading my word and teachings, I shall chase you. I shall always be with you, wherever you are! You do not even need to come to me. I shall come to you."

Conclusion: The supreme science of Yoga must be received from an enlightened master.

• what they experience when the see the form of Krsna, or the form or Swamiji • when they experience the joy of someone's presence, • how do they feel when the person has gone again? • what do you understand about Krsna's mission? how could you join Krsna's mission?

CONCLUSION

Arjuna asks for and receives the Visvarupa Darsan, the vision of the universal form of Krsna. Krsna very patiently resolves Arjuna’s doubts and answers all his questions. Arjuna then wishes to see the true reality of Krsna, the form behind the formless, the Imperishable, the Eternal. Krsna obliges his friend and disciple, Arjuna, the true representative of the human being, nara. Seeing this cosmic form of Krsna, and unable to withstand the energy, Arjuna begs Krsna to show him the benevolent four-armed form of Visnu that he is used to worshipping with devotion. Finally, Krsna reverts to His normal human form as Arjuna’s charioteer and the King of Yadavas. After showing His cosmic form and having given the experience of cosmic consciousness to Arjuna, Krsna now speaks about bhakti, devotional love.