Chapter 10: Vibhutiyoga or The Yoga of Divine Manifestations
This chapter explains the nature of the path of devotion to the all-encompassing divinity and the resplendent nature thereof as a prelude to the vision of the transcendent divine vision.
1- The Lord is the source of all manifestations. (1-6)
3. He who knows Me as unborn and beginningless, as the great Lord of the worlds, he among mortals is undeluded, he is liberated from all sins.
Though I am difficult to realise, he who gives up the worldly life with ease turning his back to the sense organs, and even though he were to lead a worldly life goes beyond the realm of the five elements by giving up the ego and the I-am-the-body attitude and by remaining steady in this condition of mind, sees my beginningless form in the light of Self-realisation and understands that I am the original power behind the universe is, among all men, a part of Me. Even though he may appear outwardly to be an ordinary person, he is not affected by gross things and his sins get automatically nullified. He who knows Me becomes freed of all desires. (Dnyaneshwari; 10:72-80, transl. M.R. Yardi)
4-5. Intelligence, wisdom, non-illusion, patience, truth, self-restraint, calmness, pleasure, pain, birth, death, fear, and security ; innocence, equanimity, contentment, austerity, beneficence, fame, shame ; ( these ) different kinds of dispositions of beings arise from Me alone.
Intelligence (buddhi) is the power which the inner sense (antah-karana) has of understanding subtle objects of thought. He, indeed, is said to be intelligent who is possessed of this power. Wisdom is the knowledge of the Self and other such things. Non-illusion consists in acting with discrimination when any thing has to be done or known at the moment. Patience : not being agitated in mind when assaulted or abused. Truth : giving utterance to one's own actual experience of things, as heard or seen, with a view to impress it on the mind of another. Self-restraint: quieting the external senses. Calmness: the tranquillity of the inner sense or anta-karana. Innocence: not injuring living beings. Contentment : being satisfied with one's present acquisitions. Austerity: bodily torture accompanied with the restraint of the senses. Beneficence : sharing (one's own things) with others as far as one's own means may permit. Fame : due to dharma. Shame : due to adharma. All these different dispositions of living beings mentioned above, such as intelligence, arise from Me alone, the Lord (Isvara), according to their respective karma. (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
2- Knowledge of the Lord's Glory conduces to Yoga. (7-11)
9. With their thought on Me, with their life absorbed in Me, instructing each other, and ever speaking of Me, they are content and delighted.
I am in everything Therefore Arjuna, these aspects are my divine manifestations with which this universe is filled. Therefore from Brahmadeo down to an ant there is nothing in this universe which is not occupied by Me. One who understands this wakes up to the realisation and he is free from the thoughts of differences like big and small, good and bad. He who experiences through yoga that I, my divine manifestations and creatures showing these manifestations are all same, becomes without doubt one with Me. I surrender myself to the devotee who worships Me with the feeling of oneness with Me. Thus the Yoga of devotion with the realisation of oneness about which I told you before goes on uninterrupted. As I have explained in the sixth chapter, it is beneficial even if a seeker dies while leading his life with such devotion. Now I shall tell you the nature of the devotion with oneness with Me.
Arjuna, just as waves are generated in water, remain in water and are dissipated also in water so is the creation and sustenance of this universe done by Me. Just as the waves cannot occur without water there is nothing in this universe without Me. Those Self-realised persons who, knowing my all pervading nature are devoted to Me with true love, and remaining aware of the fact that place, time and the present are not different from Me, live happily in these three worlds while keeping their minds occupied with Me, considering every creature they meet to be the God. Such persons are the followers of the real Bhakti (devotion) path. (Dnyaneshwari; 10:104-118, transl. M.R. Yardi)
The Lord endows His devotees with wisdom. (10-11)
10. To these, ever devout, worshipping Me with love, I give that devotion of knowledge by which they come to Me.
11. Out of mere compassion for them, I, abiding in their self, destroy the darkness born of ignorance, by the luminous lamp of wisdom.
Out of men compassion : out of mercy, anxious as to how they may attain bliss. I dwell in their anta-kharana which is engaged, in thinking exclusively of the Self and destroy the darkness of ignorance,—that illusory knowledge which is caused by the absence of discrimination,—by the lamp of wisdom, by the lamp of discriminatory knowledge, fed by the oil of pure Devotion (Bhakti-prasada), fanned by the wind of earnest meditation on Me, furnished with the wick of right intuition purified by the cultivation of piety, chastity and other virtues, held in the antah-karana which is completely detached from all worldly concerns, placed in the wind-sheltered enclosure of the mind which is withdrawn from the sense-objects and untainted by attachment and aversion, and shining with the light of right knowledge generated by incessant practice of concentration and meditation. (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)
3- The Lord's enumeration of His manifestations. (12-42)
Arjuna's question about the Lord's manifestations. (12-18)
15. Thou Thyself knowest Thyself as the Self, O Purusha Supreme, O Source of beings, O Lord of beings, O God of Gods, O Ruler of the world.
The Lord's enumeration of His manifestations. (19-42)
20. I am the Self, O Gudakesa, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning and the middle, as also the end, of all beings.
39 I am what is the seed of all beings, that also am I. O Arjima. There is no being whether moving or unmoving;. that can exist without me.
Divine Glory described in brief (41-42)
41. Whatever being is glorious, prosperous, or strong, that know thou to be a manifestation of a part of My Splendour.
Arjuna had asked Krishna under what particular form should the Self be worshipped. Krishna’s reply was “under all forms”, that there is nothing in the universe, animate or inanimate, which is without the Self. The seeker for Truth and knowledge must see the One Self in all things, and all things in the Self, and then act for and as the Self of All. All sacred writings are addressed to the individual, for it is from within the individual, and the individual alone, that reformation can begin and must be consummated. The study and application of the Gita tends to break down all ideas based upon separateness, and impresses upon the student that the way of true knowledge of the divine perfections lies in universal service, without distinction of caste, creed, sex, color or race. “Self-Knowledge is of loving deeds the child” (Crosbie, Essays on the Gita, 169)
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