Verse 11.9

Verse 11.9: Sanjaya spake, “Having spoken thus, O King, Hari, the great Master of Yoga, then, unto Pritha’s son, revealed His Highest Divine Form; (165)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

(Then Sanjaya said to king Dhritarashtra) “Oh King, the Lord Paramount ) of Kaurava Dynasty, in perpetual wonderment I have ever asked myself, what being, in all the three worlds, other than the Goddess Lakshmi, is more favoured of fortune? Is there anyone on earth except the Vedas that sing the deepest, inmost truths of the Atman? And can any one outdo the ‘Shesha’ in giving personal service to God? Who else is there other than Garuda, that like the yogins, toils day and night ceaselessly up the path of passionate devotion to God? Yet forsaking them all, all the joys of Krishna’s divine love, from the day of the Pandavas’ birth have knit together round them. And to Arjuna of them all, like a gallant enslaved by the chains of his sweetheart, Lord Krishna has wholly abandoned himself.

Neither a bird nor a beast, trained to vocal utterance and sport, is at its master’s beck and call as much as was Lord Krishna ready to do as he was bid. It is amazingly mysterious how Fates were so propitious to Arjuna! Here is Lord Krishna—Himself pure Brahman incarnate: and Arjuna the favourite of propitious fortune, is alone worthy of feasting his eyes on the Lord’s Divine grandeur: so the Lord lavishes caresses profusely on him and pampers him. Lord Krishna puts up with him when he is ill-tempered, and fondles him when he is like a wayward and perverse child. It is amazing how the Lord has gone mad after Partha. Those spiritual giants like Shuka and others who were born to ascetic conquest of amorous pleasures, became Lord Krishna’s Bards and took to singing rhapsodies of the Lord’s amorous sports. Likewise Lord Krishna is the supreme treasure in which the yogins’ meditative raptures are absorbed: and now this supreme Lord gives himself up completely to Arjuna! I shall never cease to wonder at this.”

Sanjaya added,

“Oh, what is there to be wondered at, Oh king of Kauravas? The fates are propitious to them that are chosen by Lord Krishna.”

And hence the supreme Lord said,

“Oh Partha, I give thee a second sight by which thou shalt behold Omnipresent vision.”

No sooner did these words fall from the Lord’s mouth, than all of a sudden the darkness of ignorance vanished; Oh, verily, the usual trite utterances, the Lord’s words were not. They were the rays of spiritual light kindled by Lord Krishna, to illumine the majestic empire of the Omnipresent Brahman.

Then there flashed forth the light of that spiritual eye, and the inward vision of knowledge burst up into a flame, and thus did Lord Krishna present to Arjuna the majestic grandeur of his all-pervading spirit. Narayana, the Lord of Vaikuntha, opened out to Arjuna the Omnipresent vision-that eternal ground on which is painted, as on a canvas, the whole creation of that infinite ocean—in which the divine incarnations are as flood-tides of that eternal Sun in which is imaged the mirage of the universe. Once Lord Krishna, while yet a child, swallowed earth, and angry Yashoda seized him to chide. Feigning to give unerring proof of his frightened innocence, (Lord Krishna) opened his mouth, and lo and behold! there Yashoda set her eyes on the fourteen regions of the creation; again Lord Krishna touched Dhruva on the cheek with his conch, and Dhruva gave utterance to divine Truth, that lies beyond the grasp of the Vedas themselves. Such unique blessedness, Oh King, Shrihari bestowed on Dhananjaya. Then, nowhere, could anything like Maya or illusion touch him, even so much as in name. There dawned then on his eyes the divine splendour of Lord Krishna: he was immersed in one whole ocean of miracles all round, and his mind was plunged into the flood of amazement. As Markandeya was once engulfed alone in the universal deluge of water, right up to the limits of Satyaloka, Arjuna tossed about in the divine sport of Omnipresent vision.

For, quoth he, “what an immense expanse of sky was here? Who has whisked it away and where? What has become of the great elements—the stuff of living and lifeless creation? The four quarters have their bottom knocked out; one knows not what has happened to things that were scattered up and down. The very shapes of things have vanished like a dream after waking; or verily like the sun coming forth to swallow up the moon and the whole cluster of stars, the whole order of created universe is engulfed in the vastness of Omnipresent vision. Arjuna’s mind lost its bearings, his intellect itself began to lose ground; the outgoing rays of the five senses turned back inwardly to fill up the mind: Still meditation itself became still: quiescence of mind was made quiescent, as if the whole mass of thoughts was charmed away; astonished gaze cast a longing glance at the lovely four-armed figure of Lord Krishna; that very figure spread in myriad shapes on all sides. Like the clouds filling the monsoon sky, or splendour of the sun that envelopes heaven and earth at dissolution, that same figure of Lord Krishna left nothing except itself in that vision. With the first rush of the afflatus, Arjuna stood quiescent in the full blessedness of self-knowledge, and as he opened his eyes he beheld the Omnipresent vision of the Lord. He had yearned for a visible Omnipresence of God direct and immediate and thus did Lord Krishna fondly bless him with loving fulfilment of his joys.