You are imperishable, the Supreme to be known. You are the cosmic pinnacle of treasure-chests. You are the eternal guardian of dharma. As the Eternal Purusha, in my mind (are you). BHAGAVAD GITA 11.19 Without beginning, middle, with infinite energy, With countless arms, the sun and the moon in your eyes: I see your face as the fire in the altar. Your intrinsic téjas in the universe is blazing. 11.20 Heaven and earth and indeed inter-space Pervaded by the One, in directions all, After seeing the wondrous form that is yours, The triple world is subdued, Oh Mahátma. ------------------------------------- It would seem that some elements of the vision that Arjuna is witnessing are coming back again and again. And his own mind is so overwhelmed by the magnificence of what he is seeing that he is repeating some of the attributes of the Divine: It is imperishable (aksharam), it is the supreme (paramam), it is undecaying (avyaya), etc. Here he also describes the Divine as the preserver/protector of dharma (dharmagoptá). This is an important element in the theistic worldview: That God is not simply the creator who made the universe and receded into the background (as deists believe) , but an active participator in the welfare and well being of humanity. That is why we have a Brahma as well as a Vishnu. A Father as well as a Son in the Christian tradition. The Vishnu principle corresponds to what preserves and protects dharma. This view anchors God to humanity, raising a serious theological question: Is the Divine Principle independent of the human condition or is closely linked to, if not created by the human mind? This is a question for which we may never know the correct answer. But over the ages, different people have accepted different answers: each answer affects one’s personal life, religious attitudes, and behavior in different ways. Purusha is a technical concept in Hindu metaphysics. It is the Supreme Person from which the whole universe emanated. Purusha is pictured as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet: sahasra shírsha purushaha sahasrákshas sahasrapát, it says in the Purusha Súktam. Shankarácharya defined the term as that which replenishes all, dwells in the city (body): (purusha sarvapúraNát puri shayanácca.) Arjuna describes the Divine as the Eternal Purusha (sanatana purushah). Then he returns to the imagery of the beginningless and middleless one (anādimadhyāntam), with countless arms. He sees the sun and the moon in the eyes of the Divine: another beautiful poetic description. As the sun and the moon shine in the sky, so do the two eyes illumine the face. The halo adorning Divinity’s face is described as glowing and blazing in the Cosmic vision. The entire world is described as heaven and earth and everything in between. It may be pointed out here that prthví (the earth), antariksha (space), and dyaus (heaven) are three of the four spheres (vasus) in the Vedic framework. It may be pointed out that from purely philological considerations some nineteenth century scholars drew attention to the parallel between the Dyaus Pita of the Rig Veda and the Zeus Pater of the Greek mythic tradition. This was one of the inspirations for the so-called Aryan Invasion Theory. The term Zeus Pater later merged and became Jupiter. Dyaus, prthivi, and antariksha are collectively referred to as lokatrya: the triple world. Arjuna says that everyone here is under the control of the Divine: God is not only omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, but also omnidominant. We see again how many aspects of the wealth of Hindu lore as well as subtle theology are incorporated into the Gita. V. V. Raman September 16, 2013
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 14:55:18 +0000
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