Chapter XI (Verses 43, 44)
Vishwa Roopa Darshana Yoga – The Yoga of the Vision of the Universal Form
Chapter XI
(Verses 43)
पितासि लोकस्य चराचरस्य
त्वमस्य पूज्यश्च गुरुर्गरीयान् ।
न त्वत्समोऽस्त्यभ्यधिकः कुतोऽन्यो
लोकत्रयेऽप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव ॥ ११-४३॥
You are the Father of this world, moving and unmoving. You are to be adored by this world. You are the greatest GURU, (for) there exists none who is equal to You; how can there be then another, superior to You in the three worlds, O Being of unequalled power?
Here we find that Arjuna, bursting under the pressure of his voiceless emotion and his great regard for the Lord, addresses him: “THOU ART THE FATHER OF THE WHOLE WORLD CONSTITUTED OF THE MOVING AND THE UNMOVING.” No doubt, the three worlds —consisting of our experiences in waking, dream, and deep sleep states — are the interpretations of the same Eternal from the levels of the gross, the subtle and the causal bodies, and the Truth that illumines those experiences is everywhere one and the same.
NATURALLY, THE LORD IS, AS ARJUNA SAYS, “OF UNEQUALLED GREATNESS,” AND THERE IS NON “SUPERIOR TO THEE IN THE THREE WORLDS.” BECAUSE IT IS SO
Verse 44
तस्मात्प्रणम्य प्रणिधाय कायं
प्रसादये त्वामहमीशमीड्यम् ।
पितेव पुत्रस्य सखेव सख्युः
प्रियः प्रियायार्हसि देव सोढुम् ॥ ११-४४॥
Therefore, bowing down, prostrating my body, I crave your forgiveness, adorable Lord. As a father forgiveth his son, a friend his friend, a lover his beloved, even so should You forgive me, O DEVA.
Arjuna seems to discover in himself a greater eloquence and a subtler ability to argue logically, with the realization that he is in the presence of the Almighty, the Blessed. Prostration, in Hinduism, though generally practised as a physical act of touching-the-feet of the revered, is a significant act that is to be actually accomplished in our heart as a special inward attitude. Surrendering ourselves, so that we may rise above ourselves into the spiritual fields, is true prostration. The ego and ego-centric vagaries arising out of our false identifications with matter vestures have robbed us of our experience of the Divinity which is already in us. To the extent the misconceptions are annihilated, we, without these over-growths, are sure to realise the serener beauty of the Divine, which in reality, we are. In surrendering the ego unto the Lord, in fact, we have to bring to His feet nothing but a dirty bundle of animal vasanas, putrified in our own stupidity and lust! Naturally, a devotee, reaching the feet of the Lord in a spirit of surrender and love, has to apologise for the filth that has been offered, as the only tribute of his love, at His Divine feet.
Arjuna is pleading here with the Lord to bear with him as “a father would with his son,” as “a friend with his friend,” as “a lover with his beloved.” These three examples bring within their embrace all the types of immodest crimes that man, in his ignorance, can perpetrate against his Lord, the Creator.