Talks Excerpt 465. Swamiji talks about Arjuna’s fear on seeing God’s Vishwaroopa aspect.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

[Swamiji continues [see HERE for previous segment] his talk on the Bhagavad Gita, and gives a simple interpretation of Arjuna’s words as found in the Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 11, V. 15 to 31; and 43 to 46].

When Arjuna had the vision of [Sri Krishna’s] Vishwaroopa form, he became wonder-struck and very fearful. He said to Sri Krishna, ‘O Lord, you have showed me that one plus one does not only equal two, it equals four halves, eight quarters. In you there are many diverse ways of thought. In you there are living beings, in you there are dead beings, in you there is fire, in you there is water. O Lord, these contradictory happenings – which cannot happen simultaneously at the human level – are happening. I am fearful, my Lord, because even when I see it I cannot understand it. My mind is so small, O Lord, I am fearful. I know, Lord, that you are the God of the whole universe.’

[Swamiji quotes from Ishavasya Upanishad]:

Isa vasyam idagung sarvam; yat kim ca jagatyam jagat; Tena tyak tena bhunjithah; magridha kasya svid dhanam. [Meaning: HERE.]

[Arjuna continues]: ‘You permeate permeation. You permeate Yourself. You even permeate all things which are apparently not You. O God, I cannot understand it even though you showed it to me. Now I want to see my Chosen Ideal’s [Ishta Devata – Lord Vishnu‘s] form, that Ideal that I worship, that Ideal that my mother and father worshipped before I was born. Lord, now reveal yourself with shankh (conch shell), chakra (discus), gada (club), padma (lotus), with a smiling, benign look blessing me. It seems to me that on one side there is beauty in that form of Yours, and on the other side there is terror. On one side I see there is happiness, and on the other, in the same form, I see fearfulness. It seems to me that my mind is so small in this Vishwaroopa, that fear is overwhelming me. I cannot understand it, my Lord. Reveal to me the form that I worshipped all this time.’

Then Sri Krishna revealed to him his Chosen Ideal’s form, Lord Vishnu’s form with the shanka, chakra, gada and padma. Then smiling, he became his friend, Sri Krishna, again.

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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.