ELEVENTH CHAPTER

THE DOUBLE ASPECT

35. Sanjaya said: Having heard these words of Keshava, Kiriti (Arjuna), with clasped hands and trembling, saluted again and spoke to Krishna in a faltering voice very much terrified and bowing down.

36.Arjuna said: Rightly and in good place,O Krishna, does the world rejoice ^l and take pleasure in Thy name; the Rakshasas are fleeing from Thee in terror to all the quarters and the companies of the Siddhas bow down before Thee in adoration. ²

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1 Even while the effects of the terrible aspect of this vision are still upon him, the first words uttered by Arjuna after the Godhead has spoken are eloquent of a greater uplifting and reassuring reality behind this face of death and this destruction. There is something that makes the heart of the world to rejoice and take pleasure in the name and nearness of the Divine. It is the profound sense of that which makes us see in the dark face of Kali the face of the Mother and to perceive even in the midst of destruction the protecting arms of the Friend of creatures, in the midst of evil the presence of a pure unalterable Benignity and in the midst of death the Master of Immortality.

2 From the terror of the King of the divine action the Rakshasas, the fierce giant' powers of darkness, flee destroyed, defeated and overpowered. But the Siddhas, but the complete and perfect who know and sing the names of the Immortal and live in the truth of his being, bow down before every form of Him and know what every form enshrines and signifies. Nothing has real need to fear except that which is to be destroyed, the

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37. How should they not do Thee homage, 0 great Spirit ? For Thou art the original Creator¹ and Doer of works and greater even than creative Brahma. 0 Thou Infinite, 0 Thou Lord of the gods, 0 Thou abode of the universe, Thou art the Immutable and Thou art what is and is not, and Thou art that which is the Supreme.

38. Thou art the ancient Soul and the first and original Godhead and the supreme resting-place of this All; Thou art the knower² and that which is to be known and the highest status; 0 infinite in form, by Thee was extended³ the universe.

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evil, the ignorance, the veilers in Night, the Rakshasa powers. All the movement and action of Rudra the Terrible is towards perfection and divine height and completeness.

1 The real divine creation is eternal; it is the Infinite manifested sempiternally in finite things, the Spirit who conceals and reveals himself for ever in his innumerable infinity of souls and in the wonder of their actions and in the beauty of their forms. But what he is beyond all these is That, the Supreme, who holds all things mutable in the single eternity of a Time to which all is ever present.

2 He is the Knower who develops in man the knowledge o. himself and world and God; he is the one Object of all knowing who reveals himself to man's heart and mind and soul, so that every new opening form of our knowledge is a partial unfolding of him up to the highest by which he is intimately, profoundly and integrally seen and discovered.

3 By him in his own existence the world is extended, by his omnipotent power, by his miraculous self-conception and energy and Ananda of never-ending creation.

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39-40. Thou art Yama and Vayu and Agni and Soma and Varuna and Prajapati, father of creatures, and the great-grandsire. Salutation to Thee a thousand times over and again and yet again salutation, in front and behind and from every side, for Thou art each¹ and all that is. Infinite in might and immeasurable in strength of action Thou pervadest all and art everyone.

41-42. For whatsoever I have spoken to Thee in rash vehemence, thinking of Thee only as my human friend and companion, '0 Krishna, 0 Yadava, 0 Comrade,' not knowing this Thy greatness,² in negligent error or in love, and for whatsoever disrespect was shown by me to Thee in jest, at play, on the couch and the

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1 He is all the many gods from the least to the greatest, he is the father of creatures and all are his children and his people. On this truth there is a constant insistence. Again it is repeated that he is the All, he is each and every one, Sarvah. He is the infinite Universal and he is each individual and everything that is, the one Force and Being in everyone of us, the infinite Energy that throws itself out in these multitudes, the immeasurable Will and mighty Power of motion and action that forms out of itself all the courses of Time and all the happenings of the Spirit in Nature. And from that- insistence the thought naturally turns to the presence of this one great Godhead in man.

2 This supreme universal Being has lived here before him with the human face, in the mortal body, the divine man, the embodied Godhead, the Avatar, and till now he has not known him. He has seen the humanity only and has treated the Divine as a mere human creature. He has not pierced through the earthly mask to the Godhead of which the humanity was a vessel and a symbol, and he prays now for that Godhead's forgiveness of his unseeing carelessness and his negligent ignorance. Now only he sees this tremendous, infinite, immeasurable Reality of all these apparent things, this boundless universal Form which so exceeds every individual form and yet of whom each individual thing is a house for his dwelling.

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seat and in the banquet, alone or in Thy presence, 0 faultless One, I pray forgiveness from Thee, the immeasurable.

43. Thou art the father of all this world of the moving and unmoving; Thou art one to be worshipped and the most solemn object of veneration. None is equal to Thee, how then another greater in all the three worlds, 0 incomparable in might ?

44. Therefore I bow down before Thee and prostrate my body and I demand grace of Thee the adorable Lord. As a father¹ to his son, as a friend to his friend . and comrade, as one dear with him he loves, so shouldst Thou, 0 Godhead, bear with me.

45. I have seen what never was seen before and I rejoice, but my mind is troubled with fear. 0 Godhead,

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1 What was figured in the human manifestation and the human relation is also a reality. The transcendence and cosmic aspect have to be seen, for without that seeing the limitations of humanity cannot be exceeded. But the infinite presence in its unmitigated splendour would be too overwhelming for the separate littleness of the limited, individual and natural man. A link is needed by which he can see this universal Godhead in his own individual and natural being, close to him, not only omnipotently there to govern all he is by universal and immeasurable Power, but humanly figured to support and raise him to unity by an intimate individual relation. The Divine inhabits the human soul and body; he draws around him and wears like a robe the human mind and figure. He assumes the human relations which the soul affects in the mortal body and they "nd in God their own fullest sense and greatest realisation. This is the Vaishnava bhakti of which the seed is here in the Gita's words, but which received afterwards a more deep, ecstatic and significant extension.

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show me that other¹ form of Thine; turn Thy heart to grace, 0 Thou Lord of the gods, 0 Thou abode of this universe.

46. I would see Thee even as before crowned and with Thy mace and discus. Assume Thy four-armed shape, 0 thousand-armed, 0 Form universal.

47. The Blessed Lord said: This that thou now seest by my favour, OArjuna, is my supreme shape, my form of luminous energy, the universal, the infinite, the original which none but thou amongst men has yet seen. I have shown it by my self-Yoga.²

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1 The form of the transcendent and universal Being is to the strength of the liberated spirit a thing mighty, encourag- ing and fortifying, a source of power, an equalising, sublimating, .all-justifying vision; but to the normal man it is overwhelming, appalling, incommunicable. But there is too the gracious mediating form of divine Narayana, the God who is so close to roan and in man, the Charioteer of the battle and the journey, with his four arms of helpful power, a humanised symbol of Godhead, not this million-armed universality- It is this mediating aspect which man must have for his support constantly, before him. For it is this figure of Narayana which symbolises the truth that reassures. It makes close, visible, living, seizable the vast spiritual joy in which for the inner spirit and life of man the universal workings behind all their stupendous circling, retrogression, progression sovereignly culminate, their marvellous and auspicious upshot.

2 For it is an image of my very Self and Spirit, it is the very Supreme self-figured in cosmic existence and the soul in perfect Yoga with Me sees it without any trembling of the nervous parts or any bewilderment and confusion of the mind, because he descries not only what is terrible and over- whelming in its appearance, but also its high and reassuring significance.

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48. Neither by the study of Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts or ceremonial rites or severe austerities, this form of mine can be seen by any other than thyself, 0 foremost of Kurus.

49. Thou shouldst envisage this tremendous vision without pain, without confusion of mind, without any sinking of the members. Cast away fear and let thy heart rejoice, behold again this other ¹ form of mine.

50. Sanjaya said: Vasudeva, having thus spoken to Arjuna, again manifested his normal (Narayana) image; the Mahatman again assuming the desired form of grace and love and sweetness consoled the terrified one.

51. Arjuna said: Beholding again Thy gentle human form, 0 Janardana, my heart is filled with slight and I am restored to my own nature.

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1.But since lower nature in thee is not yet prepared to look upon it with that high strength and tranquility, I will resume again for thee my Narayana figure in which the human mind sees isolated and toned to its humanity the calm, helpfulness and delight of a friendly Godhead.

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52-54. The Blessed Lord said: The greater Form that thou hast seen is only for the rare highest souls. The gods themselves ever desire to look upon it. Nor can I be seen ¹ as thou hast seen Me by Veda or austerities or gifts or sacrifice, it can be seen, known, entered into only by that bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things.

55. Be a doer of my works, accept Me as the supreme being and object, become my bhakta, be free from attachment and without enmity to all existences; for such a man comes to Me, 0 Pandava.²

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1 Man can know by other means this or that exclusive aspect of the one existence, its individual, cosmic or world- excluding figures, but not this greatest reconciling Oneness of all the aspects of the Divinity in which at one and the same time and in one and the same vision all is manifested, all is exceeded and all is consummated. This vision can be reached only by the absolute adoration, the love, the intimate unity that crowns at their summit the fullness of works and know- ledge. There is a supreme consciousness through which it is possible to enter into the glory of the Transcendent and contain in him the immutable Self and all mutable Becoming,— it is possible to be one with all, yet above all, to exceed world and yet embrace the whole nature at once of the cosmic and the supracosmic Godhead. This is difficult indeed for limited man imprisoned in his mind and body; but the Godhead shows the way in the next sloka.

2 In other words, superiority to the lower nature, unity with all creatures, oneness with the cosmic Godhead and the Transcendence, oneness of will with the Divine in works., absolute love for the One and for God in all,—this is the way to that absolute spiritual self-exceeding and that unimaginable transformation.

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