AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Speech by HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji on Gita Jayanthi at Bhagavad Gita Global Conference – December 13, 2013 - Mysore
 

Today in Nada Mantapam we are celebrating the 11 Gita Global Conference. Today Sri Swamiji told about the Krishna tattva (essence) and the vishwaroopa sandarsha yoga (yoga of vision of Universal form) in a subtle way. We shall talk about the same now. We have heard the “Geeta Saram” cd. The book based on the discourse given in Chaturmasya deeksha in Eluru on Vibhuti Yoga (yoga of manifestation) has been just released. 

vamshi vibhushita karan nava nira dabhat
pitambarah aruna-bimba phala darushta
purnendu sundar mukha aravinda netra
krsnat param kim-api-tatvam aham na jane

How is lord Krishna’s appearance?

vamshi vibhushita karan nava nira dabhat

He is wearing a crown and it is decorated with the peacock feather on it. His body complexion is radiant, attracting all, marvelous and flawless. The color here is not ordinary but it can be compared to the color of the clouds at the time of the first rain in the rainy season. The period ending in May or beginning of June. He is neither completely black nor completely blue. He is glowing with such color radiance. 

Pitambarah
He is wearing the Pitambara robes. In the Bhagavatam a lot of meanings are attributed to “pita” but here we have to take the color of the Pitambara cloth which is similar to the color of the Kadamba flower. Normally the yellow is dark yellow in color. Here Krishna robes are in shade of yellow shade resembling the Kadamba flower.

aruna-bimba phala darushta purnendu sundar mukha aravinda netra

Now His lips are being described, because it is the origin of the Bhagavat Gita. Like if we travel upwards from Ganga, Gomukham then the upper end of the Bharmandam-universe is reached. We worship such journey. The lips image the red color that is comparable to the red early morning sky. He is in the form of Lord Surya and hence He has showered rain of knowledge on us. Here, the entire description of His body is not told because of the inability in describing Him. Words are not enough to describe Him. Such is His form. He is formless God, Who has taken form. His face complexion or radiance is the one which bestows you with complete knowledge. Only on darshan of His facial complexion we will be bestowed with complete knowledge. Sri Swamiji’s mere darshan gives us knowledge He need no talk. The mere darshan of Sadguru bestows knowledge. Seeing the full moon, we forget all the irritations, we get rid of the heat and sufferings, and we feel very happy.

Sarva indriyanam nayanam pradhanam - Eyes are very important among the sense organs. 

God has given a blessing to us by giving eyesight. Sometimes we feel that the blind people see or have a better vision than us. There are many great people who are blind, but see much more than we see with our eyes. Having eyes, also we are not able to have the same vision of the people who are blind. God has blessed us by giving us the eye of knowledge. We are given two eyes. The purpose of the eyes is one eye to see the past and the other to see the future. Think about your past. How are you? How did you come? What did you do? What was your position and the progress you made, how are you now, and how would your future be? It is a practice to say past, future and present and not past, present and future. The sequence has come like that, isn’t a surprise? Truly speaking the sequence should be past, present and future. We see the past and compare our present and see the growth, development as human being because of the past. Then you think that the past time has contributed to the present changes in me. There should be some kind of development and progress in me, hence these changes has come in my nature. How can we call someone human being without any kind of growth in him. Even animals grow. It would be a surprise if human being does not grow. Here not only the physical growth, but the intellectual growth is being stressed more. The intellectual growth is the true growth. Seeing the past, we realize that “since I did not grow as a human being in the past, now I must grow intellectually for my better future.” This is the reason why God has given us two physical eyes and hid the third eye. 

The invisible eye is called the eye of knowledge. The third is only visible for Shiva. That is the reason we call Him Sadguru. Only to Him the third eye is visible outside. No plastic surgery can give you the third eye. Trying for the third eye, you may lose both of the eyes. The third eye is not the one which is visible. The present time is like the third eye. It is not visible. We believe that we are seeing the present time but it is not true. So are we seeing the present or not? The view of the present should be seen with proper vision, else it is of no use. What is the benefit of seeing a cricket match by someone who does not know about cricket? He just sees it. The person viewing the cricket match who knows about cricket, derives benefit or understands the match. This is materialistic example. In spirituality how complex must this power of true vision be? The vision of the knowledgeable person and the ignorant are very different. For example, if we are reading a book which is in an alien language to us, can we understand the language or science that is prescribed in the book? We only know that it is a book. No matter how great the science is, that is being told in that book, unless you don’t know the language and have little knowledge about the science prescribed in that book, the completeness will not be gained. To give such completeness, here Krishna is being described as “purnendu sundar mukha aravinda netrat”. 

krsnat param kim-api-tatvam aham na jane

All these are the comparability qualities to Krishna. Great devotees of Krishna say I don’t know any tattva that is on a higher plane than Krishna. Generally devotees say that we don’t know any God or Guru greater than Krishna. They say there none other than Krishna who knows the essence and is the protector of dharma. There is no other protector than Krishna. “There is no other place to surrender other than You.” These kind of descriptions of Krishna are more prevalent but the description that “I don’t know any tattva that is higher than You” is rare. 

krsnat param kim-api-tatvam aham na jane- I don’t know any other tattva higher than Krishna.

Until now we have described the physical appearance of Krishna. Is this a mere physical description or the description of His tattva? Until now the appearance of Krishna has been beautifully described, but the last line “krsnat param kim-api-tatvam aham na jane-” raises the doubt in the mind of the disciple. The doubt raised is whether the physical attributes to Krishna described so far are only physical Or are they are subtlety indicating the tattva of Krishna? Guru is not the body, but He is a word or sound. Likewise, Krishna is also tattva and not the physical body. 

God takes some form, be it in Vaikunta or Brahmaloka, He saw the ignorant humans on the earth and felt pity. He thought “I must remove their ignorance. I must do it. I must save them. If I don’t do, who else will do it? These are all my children.” Here, what does saving mean? Is it to give some morsels of food, giving good clothes, and some cars…? This is not saving. If this would be called saving, then what is the difference between an ordinary king who can give all the above things and Lord Krishna, Who is the king of Self and can give you the kingdom of the Self? 

So, Krishna sees the ignorant humans with pity, decided to uplift the human race from the ocean of samsara. Here, what does samsara mean? Samsara means not the wife and children. Many people have the wrong impression, that quitting the wife and going to the forest to perform penance, will give knowledge. They will not get knowledge, instead wild animals will get tasty food. They will eat with interest thinking that this person is not doing any spiritual practice but only eating food three times a day. He is fat and meat would be tasty. This is a very wrong impression and it has never been authenticated by the elders. Krishna will never say this to anyone. If he would to say this, then He would not ask Arjuna to stand and fight the battle out in the battle field. 

Escapism is not Krishna tattva. We must stay there in samsara and do our duty and practice righteousness. We must practice to do our duties with the guidelines of Karma yoga- the eternal duties of human beings. Krishna tattva is to take all to the stage where we practice, do our duty without expectation of fruits and where we practice righteousness. The body has also been created and is fit to do our duties and not created for escapism. Other than the time spend in meditation, the rest of the time your body is suited to do your duties. If a person, who has a fit body to do his duties, is told to quit his duties, then he will be confused as to what to do? Arjuna also got confused at the start of the battle of Kurukshtera. 

Arjuna said to Krishna: “Sometimes You say about doing duties and sometimes You say about knowledge. You are confusing my intellect. O Krishna, please initiate me into the right path.”
Krishna then initiated Arjuna into Karma yoga- the eternal duties of human beings. One has to do his duties. One has no choice. 

I read this somewhere…
I fell asleep and dreamed that life is happiness
I woke and discovered that life is duty
I did my duty and discovered that life is happiness.

Here, this person fell asleep and dreamed. What did he dream? He dreamed that life is happiness. He woke up and he felt, “O man ! I slept and dreamed that life is happiness.” On pondering, he realized that Life is duty and that he has forgotten his duty. When one forgets duty, then all he does, is eat and sleep, and nothing else. Then he thought, “Doing duty is mandatory. How can I stay without doing my duty?” Then he did his duty and then he discovered that life is happiness. So what do we understand here? Life is duty. When you do your duty, you will be happy.

Everyone has a duty in this world. Not only normal humans, but also the great Saints whose only aim is salvation. What is the duty of great Saints? To make sure that they are firmly placed in Ashtanga yoga and that they don’t perish from the status of Ashtanga Yoga. Krishna is telling this tattva-essence to great saints. Does He need to tell us separately? Can anyone who has abandoned his duty, achieve progress in life? Will he be in good stead in life? 

When we question ourselves then the immediate question we get, is “What is my duty? Are we at a stage in our life where we don’t know our duty?” If you don’t know your duty, then you can approach your Sadguru. He will tell you. Then the Guru will give you instructions like, do this Mantra or do this yoga, according to the individual's needs. Now doing this spiritual practice, social service and following the instructions given by Guru in actions, is your duty. The life cycle of birth and death are the result of the deeds we have done in past lifes. Now that we have taken this body we must do good deeds which give us liberation from the cycle of birth and death. 

To have clarity of whose duty is what, we need someone to segregate the duties of humans. Krishna did this for the human beings. Krishna defined and explained the duties of Arjuna. Why only Arjuna? Because he is important. What vow did Yudhistira (eldest of the pandavas brothers) take ? He said “I will not fight the battle or will stop the battle of Kurukshetra, if either one of my brothers doesn’t fight or dies in the mid battle. No matter if Kauravas comes and kill me. If we all five brothers are willing to fight the battle, only then the battle will happen. The inner meaning here is the sync among the pancha pranas (five form of life force). When they are in proper sync, the life energy will work healthily. If the pancha pranas are not balanced then this will result in reduction of life force. Here the high’s and low’s of the pancha pranas will not have any bearing on the Atma energy. Here Krishna is in the form of Atma. 

In mundane life, the energy of the Atma guides the pancha pranas and hence using this pancha pranas, we must gain the knowledge of the Self. Hence Yudhistira is willing to fight only if all the four brothers join him. The four brothers other than Arjuna are ready to fight the battle. The surprise here is that Arjuna is in the very near vicinity of Lord Krishna, and has a very strong and close relationship with Krishna is refusing to fight. Arjuna, who had the charioteer Krishna, is not willing to fight. This is maya-illusion, avidya-ignorance, brahma- misapprehension, moham- emotions, agnanam- darkness. Isn’t it a surprise? Krishna is closer to Arjuna than anyone else in Pandavas. Such Arjuna refused to fight. How big problem and questions is this? What kind of initiation should Krishna do to Arjuna? Can Krishna say “Ok Kauravas, my Arjuna is not feeling to fight the battle, so let's disperse, go home, eat and sleep”? Is it that easy? No. This would result in so much disgrace and an insult. It is also a non-righteous act. What will the entire world speak of Krishna? After dispersing the battle, if Krishna tells the Bhagavad-Gita, then will the world listen? No. It will not listen. The world listened to the Bhagavad-Gita, because Krishna told it in the battlefield. If Krishna would say, “I will take a break from battle” and tell Bhagavad Gita, then also we would not listen to Him. We listened to the Bhagavad-Gita because Krishna told it to Arjuna, who was running away from the battle.

Krishna initiated the Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna who was refusing to fight the battle and made him do his duty (Satkarma). Krishna made Arjuna do his duty and used this situation to bless the world. This was Krishna’s sankalpa. This sankalpa-resolve of Krishna was fulfilled with the Bhagavad-Gita. People who know their duty, will do it voluntarily. But what about the people who don’t know their duty? They need someone to tell them. We also at certain times and circumstances, don’t do our duty. Either by way of being ignorant or neglecting, being careless, and high’s and lows’s of non-righteousness thoughts in us. It is Krishna’s sankalpa to remove such bad qualities which are a hindrance to do your duty. Arjuna is present in all of us. To wake this Arjuna up, Krishna tells "The Vibhuti Yoga".

Pandavanam dhanajayaha 

Krishna was describing a list of His manifestations in the entire creation. In the list of things eg like “Among demons I am Prahalada”, now He is telling “among Pandavas I am Dhananjaya”. Generally if we were to address anyone who is sitting near us, we would address him as “you” and not call him by his name. Here Krishna trickly called Arjuna as Dhananjaya. Krishna could have said “among pandavas I am you” but He did not address Arjuna like that. Krishna called Arjuna who is sitting at a nearby distance, by the name Dhananjaya. Even Arjuna was surprised with such addressing. Krishna’s intent was calling Arjuna, who in previous time won many states/kingdom’s with his valour and fulfilled his duty. 

In the chapter Virataparvamm…while Arjuna was fighting the battle to save the cow heard of the king Virata from being kidnapped by the Kauvaras, the charioteer driving Arjuna’s chariot, flee away, getting scared of Kauvaras might. Arjuna did his duty by fighting the battle while holding the ropes of the horses admits his teeth and parallel shooting arrows on his opposition. Arjuna won his battle single-handedly and rescued the cows of the king that were being kidnapped by the Kauravas. In this valorous way, he fulfilled his duty. Krishna is calling for such Dhananjaya to come back and not this Arjuna. This Arjuna fears the battle, not willing to fight the battle and is speaking about knowledge in the scholarly language as if he knows it. “I don’t want this Arjuna, I want the valorous Dhananjaya.” Sadguru expects this from His disciples and He will tell this clearly to His disciples. Krishna answered all this because Arjuna asked for His opulences. This was answered in the 7th and 9th chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita. 

Now again Krishna (Sadguru) remembers His disciple’s (Arjuna) question and again answers in great detail. This is the grace of Sadguru. He remembers what you have asked and gives it when you need the most. Krishna said “ Arjuna some time back you asked me to describe my opluences. Now I shall describe them in great detail”. Krishna started telling Vibhooti Yoga. Krishna enumerates all His manifest attributes and lastly says, “Arjuna, what will you do, knowing the never ending list of my innumerable manifestations/opluences? In the initial stage of spiritual quest it is ok to know the attributes of my manifestations. In the advance stages of spiritual practice you will understand these manifested attributes naturally. “Understand one thing Arjuna, knowing one thing you can you know all.” What is that one thing? “Arjuna, the entire world is in existence, because I have gripped it. Else it will perish. Understand or realize me as the gripper of this world, then can you have My vision everywhere.” Don’t ask me whether I have caught this or that. I did not say I am the gripping the entire world other than you. The entire creation is held by me.“

After Krishna initiated Vibhuti yoga to Arjuna, his darkness was dispelled and Arjuna was very happy. “O Krishna, you have told me this Vibhuti yoga to bless me and now my moham-emotions are gone. Now I am not suffering from the emotional fever called moham-emotions and I am happy. Here Arjuna is telling the fruit that he has experienced by listening to Vibhuti yoga.

Sadguru’s words should not be left unpracticed. Not only listening to the Sadguru’s words, we must drink it. Going into the stomach whether it turns into blood or digests or turns into flesh, and turns into things which is deficient in the body. Whatever it is, some portion of the intake of Sadguru’s words will be useful and not go waste. How to drink Sadguru’s words? Drink Sadguru’s preaching by using your ears. It should go to your heart. It reached Arjuna’s heart and hence he could say I have no emotions now. If this word of Krishna did not go to Arjuna’s heart he would not have got rid of Moham-emotions. Just listening to the list of attributes of manifestations of Krishna will not give anything. They must go to the heart to gain fruit. While listening to the list of Krishna's manifestations, Arjuna was able to envision them and hence he got the fruit.

We are remembering Bhagavad-Gita once a year. As Sri Swamiji told, we must study at least one sloka a day. It is the speech of the Guru. It removes our doubts, protects us, and gives us knowledge.

Vishwaroopa sandarshana yogam 

Vishwam means “someone entered”. Who entered? God, entered into the world. God has created the world and entered it, else this world has no value. Let's assume that we went to someone’s house and see a beautiful sugarcane placed at a distance. Seeing no one, we jumped and gripped the sugarcane only to find out it to be a plastic sugarcane. What is the use of this plastic sugarcane? Can we eat it? Likewise, if God were not to enter the world, it would be useless. When is the sugarcane best utilized? When we manufactur sugar from it, eat it or at least use as manure. The plastic sugarcane is not useful to eat, manufacturing sugar or at least useful as manure. We have used for decorative purposes for some time. Later it loses its value and we don’t want to look at it anymore. Similarly the world would be best utilized only when God (Universal consciousness) has entered the world. This is the reason why God has not only created the world but also entered it. When God entered it, the creation became Vishwam. 

Vishwam vishnur vashatkaraha - Vishnu is vishwam and vice versa. 
This concept is a bit contrary to the non-dualism, but for the sake of understanding, it is ok. Arjuna is asking Krishna, “Please show me the form of Yours in which You have entered this world.”Arjuna says to Krishna “Krishna, there are many diverse things in this creation. They are scattered all over the place. I am not able to see them properly this way. So please show me them at all at one place”. Krishna’s grace is unlimited on the disciple. Arjuna asked only a few things. 

Here the vision of the person is very important. The idol is seen by non devotees as stone but the devotees see a living God in that idol. Both the sides claim their vision as true. What is the real truth here? What has poorna phalam- complete fruit, is truth. Seeing an idol as stone is not complete fruit. Seeing an idol as stone is nothing special any ignorant man will see it like that. Seeing God in an idol is special. This vision of God in an idol is Vibhuti or Vishwaroopam. God is omnipresent. How can He not be in a stone or wood? In Puri Jaganath temple the idol is made of wood. God is in clay, that is also why we make parthiva shiva linga- shiva linga made from mud. The idol symbolizes the omnipresent God and we worship the idol. 
Arjuna siad to Krishna “ likewise show me a symbolic form of Your Vishwaroopam.”

Krishna said “Arjuna, you can see not only things you have asked for, but also things your mind can imagine. See and have the vision of all such things at one single place. Arjuna, this form of mine cannot be seen with normal eyes. I am giving you the divine sight. See my Vishwaroopam with this eyesight.” 

Here, Veda Vyasa Maharishi did not describe the way Krishna gave the eyesight. The other commentaries say that the eyesight is needed for viewing the Vishwaroopam is different. When we try for such eyesight, then we will also see the Vishwaroopam – vast cosmic manifestation. 

Krishna gave such eyesight to Arjuna, seeing the Arjuna’s devotion and the complete understanding of the Vibhutis of Krishna. It is a great grace of Krishna of giving such eyesight and the eligibility of Arjuna earned to get such eyesight. Here devotion walks away with the first prize more than Krishna and Arjuna’s greatness. Devotion means feelings of ardent love and trust. Without devotion there is no fruit. If we have such faith, feelings of ardent love and trust instilled in the Bhagavad-Gita then we can understand fully, else it will be like any other book. Initially we may read this as a guideline for management courses, but later on we must listen with the belief that these are the utterances of God and Vedas and when we try and understand, only then we can understand fully. 

Until now the entire subject has gone on the Vedic plane. Now the characters enter the scene. Sanjaya enters first. 
Sanjaya says to the blind king Dhritarashtra. “Krishna has given the divine eyesight to Arjuna and Arjuna is seeing the Vishwaroopam of Krishna now.” 
Krishna told Sanjaya, “I am giving you divine eyesight with which you can see all the happenings in the battle field. You sit here and say all those things to Dhritarashtra.” Hearing this from Sanjaya, Dhritarashtra could see all those battlefield happenings. 

On the pretext of giving Arjuna the divine eyesight Krishna gave divine eyesight to three people at one time: Arjuna, Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra. Krishna gave the divine eyesight not only to the person to whom He is talking to, but also to two other people. This means, He will give the divine eyesight to those who will read and understand the Bhagavad-Gita. This is the inner meaning of giving the divine eyesight to three people simultaneously. Else how could Sanjaya and the born blind Dhritarashtra see it? We are with some eyesight and trying and making some attempts to understand the Bhagavad-Gita. Can’t we see? All those who have devotion, they can see the Vishwaroopam. With his divine eyes, Arjuna was seeing the Vishwaroopam with an intention to enjoy the site, but he was scared seeing it. Many people climb up the tree to greater heights and to have a view from top but are scared to look down. Arjuna prayed Krishna that he is getting scared by seeing the fire in which the entire army is going in. “The Gods and the Rishis are entering it, and all the creation is merging with You.” Vishwam means merging. Hence Krishna again does upadesha to Arjuna and asks him to wake up and do his duty of fighting the battle. “I have made the sankalpa-vow/resolve to unburden the earth of bad people. I have already incarnated. Nothing will stop if you don’t fight the battle. Be a tool in my hands and do your duty. It will benefit you.”

Some poet says: 
“Do what Lord Krishna wants.
Then your work will become Krishna’s work.
What you desire is not Krishna’s work.”

Krishna’s vow: “Anyone who treats all the actions happening in the world as the order of the Almighty, he shall have my full protection. Someone who is happy to be the tool in the hands of the Almighty will surely make progress in life and will lead a purposeful life and not the one who questions: “Why did this happen? How did this happen? Why should I do like this?” All those people who believe that all the happenings in the world have the full attestation of God and is beyond our human reach, such people will be blessed by God.” 

Arjuna was seeing all his relatives who were on the battlefield entering the mouth of Krishna in His Vishwaroopam. Krishna showed this to Arjuna’s to remove his fear of killing his relatives. The image of Arjuna getting the upadesha from Krishna was also shown to Arjuna in the Vishwaroopam. Like a mirror image. This is Vishwaroopa Sandarshanam chapter. Arjuna said “I am not able to see this fearful form of Yours. Please show me the form of Yours in which You have four hands.” Krishna agreed and showed His four hand form. 

“See the Vishwaroopam as the omnipresence of God over all. See it in yourself or see it in your God’s idol or in Sadguru.” These three forms of worship was instructed by Krishna at one go. Krishna gave this upadesha to Arjuna and the three choices of seeing the Vishwaroopam. Krishna says, “Arjuna, no one other than you have seen this ferocious form.” Many sages have seen this form, but by saying this way Krishna attracted Arjuna. Just like we say to the child this is a special chocolate and I am giving it only to you. This made Arjuna feel the abundant love, affection and grace that Lord Krishna had on him. 

Daily reading one shloka from each Vishwaroopa yoga, Bhakti yoga, Vibhuti yoga will give you the fruit of doing sagunopasana- idol worship. The shastras and commentators are of this opinion. 

The crown of the Vishwaroopa sandarshana yoga is :
“Anyone who is doing the duties only for Me or God, with the strong feeling that I am God, with devotion on Me, without any karma sagam (not to be attached be detached to the duty you are doing), having no enmity on anyone (anyone who has enmity in heart will not have darshan of God), they will merge with me at the end.” 

May all be blessed by Sadguru and Krishna.

Jai bolo Krishna Paramatma ki jai
Jai bolo Sadguru maharaj ki jai.