Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

Yesterday ‘G’ raised the point of viśwarūpa. So I thought I would speak something about the same subject. I don’t know how people get so much deluded and the clinging to delusion, no effort is there to examine it and to get rid of it. Suppose Krishna showed viśwarūpa to Arjuna, in what manner does it help you or hinder you? Krishna is gone, Arjuna is gone. He saw viśwarūpa. Whatever happened after showing viśwarūpa, what effect did it have on Arjuna, how did he behave? If any living lessons can be taken from the whole scenario, it is good. Let us discuss it in a proper manner.

After showing the viśwarūpa Arjuna got frightened and he wanted him to withdraw the viśwarūpa and show him something beautiful he could look at. Okay. Where was the necessity for viśwarūpa to be shown? Arjuna had come there to fight the war. The war was very unusual because he had to fight his own kith and kin, more particularly his own grandfather who had no ill will but only blessing to offer to Arjuna and others. Then it was a fight with his own teacher, of course Drona had asked him, “When the necessity comes you should fight with me. This is the Guru-dakshina I want.” he said after giving him brahmaśirostra. Now this is the war Arjuna was in.

In this war, Yudhishthira was there, Arjuna’s brothers were there, Krishna was there to give an overall support, sanction, inspiration etc. In spite of it, why did Arjuna have so much of reluctance, fear and consternation? That itself was wrong. That wrong somehow acted upon his mind and Krishna was trying to give him enlightenment to remove it. In the process, Krishna had to say many things -about what? About the constitution of the world, the plights and faiths in the world, ultimately how the world moves, where it moves, how complex it is, how it consists of good and bad, how it consists of destruction, construction, evolution, dissolution, devolution – everything he was explaining. 

Then he (Arjuna) said, “I want to see your viśwarūpa.” Where was the necessity? In the viśwa, are not all these things taking place? Is there any moment when no destruction and no extinction is there? The entire world is completely changeful. Changefulness means extinction of what is now and the emergence of something new. So extinction gives rise to emergence, emergence gives rise to extinction and both are working complementarily. This is the world in which we are. To understand this in full is seeing the world in full. That is viśwarūpa darśana.

This darśana, Arjuna was unable to have even after explaining. Then, he branched off to say, “If you are all this, then I would like to see you like this.” What is meant by “I would like to see you like this.”? You are seeing it right in your front. This is what world is. Very recently, we had an explosion in Himalayas. How many people died? We had earlier a flood in Kedar, how many people died and how much of property was taken away? When you look at the world, how much of notoriety is going on and how much of benign-ness is there?

Nutan Swamiji is reading a book written in Bengali on Narmada paryadana. He says, it is a very great book which tells us the glory and greatness of Narmada and the Narmada surroundings. It is in Bengali. Now, if anybody reads the book to the extent he told me, you will develop so much of admiration, perhaps awe also, and regard for the whole country and particularly the Narmada banks and the Narmada importance. So there are many, many beautiful things here. Equally so we have ugly things. And some of the destructional elements are even caused and being caused by the human beings.

If you look at the viśwarūpa, India has always been held by disasters. We are one of the ten countries which is prone to natural hazards and the hazards are floods, drought, cyclone, then landslides, then maybe earth quake. Every year when the rain commences in Kerala, huge lightning and thunder follow. Certainly a few people are killed. And in the rains, many places are flooded. Some landslides occur, invariably people die. Man-made accidents, more than 1.5 lakhs of people are killed on the road every year regularly. Are they not man-made accidents? Is it not included in the viśwarūpa?

So what you need is you look at the world and understand that the whole world is the rūpa, the form, nature and character of God. God in display is world. What did Krishna say?

Kālo’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt-pravṛddho, after showing the viśwarūpa, when Arjuna got frightened Krishna says,

kālo’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt-pravṛddho
lokān-samāhartum-iha pravṛttaḥ

“What you saw in Viśwarūpa is something, the effect of time. I am the power and passage of time, process of time and the purpose of time is loka-kṣaya-kṛt-pravṛddhah. Only to destroy the world I am operating. Lokān-samāhartum-iha pravṛttaḥ - I will enfold the world whenever necessary, it is part of the creation and preservation process.”

“Don’t think that you are necessary to fight this war and to end this war. Even without you, the war will go on and all the people who have assembled here minus ten will be killed.”

Now what followed the viśwarūpa darshana, is it the real viśwarūpa or what Krishna showed if at all was the viśwarūpa? One was an illusory, momentary, imaginary creation. The other was the factual sequence that followed. Eighteen days war took place and in the eighteen days, 4.5 million warriors minus ten were killed. You tell me, which is the real viśwarūpa? Is it what Arjuna saw and Krishna showed apparently or is it the rūpa that followed later?

Even now we are surrounded by the same world when Krishna and Arjuna were living and the same kāla is operating now. As a result of that en masse destruction also will follow. So looking at the world, understanding how it exists and what all things are likely to occur in this world, in a short manner, piecemeal manner and in a wholesome manner and considering that to be a display of the supreme divinity, this is called viśwarūpa darshana. I don’t know when you people will understand it.

“Viśwarūpa, Krishna showed, waah, waah!” If Krishna showed and Arjuna saw, what of it to us? We are living in a world after Krishna has left, Arjuna has gone and what is the message for us? The message is this –

kālo’smi loka-kṣaya-kṛt-pravṛddho
lokān-samāhartum-iha pravṛttaḥ

“I am the person behind the wheel of time. And the whole object of time is to destroy and enfold everything in the world in the form of creation.” So as much as creation is going on, preservation is there, so much destruction also will be there. The destruction will be in a regular manner, in an irregular manner, sometimes in an en masse manner, all these things together constitute the very expression of God and expression of nature. This is what we have to understand.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.