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This is a question I had for a long time. What did arjuNa really see in
the battlefield of kurukshetra? Did he see God the kilo-limb giant? Or
did he see something else?
There were at least three occassions when Sri kR^ishhNa showed vishvarUpa;
once, as a child, He was eating soil, when His mother wanted to him to
open His mouth so she could take the soil out; for a second time, when He
went to mediate for the pAndavas asking for five villages in the kaurava
court, as duryodhana wanted to capture Him and, and for the third time to
arjuna in the battlefield of kurukshetra. These visions were all
different, as He told arjuna (SBG 11.47). The vishvarUpa that He showed
arjuNa is the most famous one.
In chapter 13, verse 13, as Sri kR^ishhNa describes:
sarvataH pANipAdaM tat.h sarvato.akshishiromukhaM
sarvataH shrutimalloke sarvamAvR^itya tishhThati. SBG 13.13
I would like to draw your attention especially to one word, ŒsarvatH¹.
Many translators have translated sarvataH as Œeverywhere¹, but note that
it is not ŒsarvatraH¹ that means Œeverywhere¹. sarvataH means Œin every¹.
sarvataH pANipAdaM sarvataH akshishiromukhaM sarvataH shrutimat.h tat.h
loke sarvaM AvR^itya tishhThati.
God who is in all arms and feet, all eyes, heads and mouths, all hearing
ears, is present in all the worlds covering the entire creation.
Rather than, God who has everywhere, His arms and feet, eyes and heads and
mouths and hearing ears, is situated in all worlds covering all of
creation. At least, not in the most straightforward meaning. To me, it
seems that this verse claims our hands and our feet and other appendages
to be God¹s tools. The very next verse throws more light on this subject.
sarvendriyaguNAbhAsaM sarvendriya vivarjitaM.
asaktaM sarvabhR^ichchaiva nirguNaM guNabhoktR^i cha. SBG 13.14
The verse says:
He who is the subtle expression (AbhAsa) of the guNas of all indriyas,
bereft of all indriyas, unattached, also is alone the filler of all
requirements, guNa-less, also the enjoyer of guNas.
Verses SBG 13.20-22 expand on Œsarvendriya guNa-AbhasaM¹, and it is
straightforward; so we skip to the next word, Œsarvendriya-vivarjitaM¹
(bereft of indriyas). We have 10+1 indriyas that include 5 karmendriyas
(vAk, pANi, pAda, pAyu and upastha), 5 GYAnendriyas (eyes, ears, nose,
tounge and skin) and mind. In a literal meaning, the phrase indicates
that God does not carry the sense appendages such as hand and feet etc.
This aspect is elaborated in the kenopanishhad.h.
yachchakshushhA na pashyati yena chakshuMsi pashyati. 1.7
yachchhotreNa na shR^iNoti yena shrotraM idaM shrutaM. 1.8
yanmanasA na manute yenAhurmano mataM. 1.6
tadeva brahma tvaM biddhi.
He who does not see with eyes, but by whom eyes see etc. These verses
describe the dependence of the indriya functions on God. The
shvetAsvetara upanishhad.h also says that He does not wear the
sense-organs.
apaNipAdo javanograhItA pashyatyaschakshuH sa shR^inotyakarNaH.
sa vetti vedyaM na cha tasyAsti vettA tamAhuragryaM purushhaM mahAntaM. 3.19
saH apANipadaH javanaH grahitA, achakshuH saH pashyati, akarNaH shR^inoti,
etc. (He does not have arms and legs, yet he moves and accepts; He does
not have eyes, yet He sees; He does not have ears, yet He hears).
What did then arjuNa mean by ŒsahasrabAho vishvamurte¹ (SBG 11.46) or
Œthousand armed world form¹ ? Before we get into that and the vishvarUpa
in general, let us consider another verse:
avibhaktaJNcha bhUteshhu vibhaktamiva cha sthitaM. (SBG 13.16)
(He) although undivided, is situated as if divided. That means, His
Œworld form¹ features are Œas if¹ ones.
Sri kR^ishhNa Himself describes the vishvarUpa simply as :
mayA prasannena tavArjunedaM, rUpaM paraM darshitaM AtmayogAt.h
tejomayaM vishvaM anantaM AdyaM yanme tvadanyena na dR^ishhTapUrvaM. (SBG
11.47).
me idaM tejomayaM anantaM AdyaM paraM vishvaM rUpaM prasannena mayA tava
darshitaM. tadanyena arjuna, yat.h na dR^ishhTapurvaM.
The verse says:
I, being pleased, have shown you this luminous (tejomaya), infinite
(ananta), original (Adi), wonderful World form (paraM vishvarUpaM) by my
Atmayoga. arjuNa, such has not been seen by anybody before.
Given the vivid visuals that arjuna described in this chapter, this may
seem as an understatement. Let us investigate the new tool
(divya-chakshu) that He gave arjuNa in order for him to see the world
form. What would a person be expected to see if he had this gift?
SBG verses 15.10-11 describe this:
utkrAmantaM sthitaM vApi bhuJNjAnaM vA guNAnvitaM.
vimuDA nAnupashyanti pashyanti GYAnachakshushhaH. (SBG 15.10)
yatanto yoginaschainaM pashyantyAtmananyavasthitaM.
yatanto.apyakR^itAtmAno nainaM pashyantyachetasaH. (SBG 15.11)
In essence, these two verses say that such a person (or yogi) endowed with
GYAna-chakshu can see the jivAtman, both when It is seated in the body or
when It is leaving the body. Of course, the description here is for
ŒGYAnachakshu¹ not Œdivya-chakshu¹. But I have not found any reason to
think that they are different; it seems to me that GYAnachakshu and
divya-chakshu are the same thing. (Please also see later).
If they are, it explains why arjuna described the headgears, the maces,
the wheels in verse SBG 11.17. My hypothesis is, those things belonged to
the soldiers around him, in whom, because of divya-dR^ishhTi, arjuna saw
the undivided yet Œas if¹ divided Atman, and their war gears also appeared
as divya or all luminous (samasta uddipta SBG 11.17). After all, the
soldiers too are His Self-projections (ahaM sarvasya prabhavo SBG 10.8).
Sri kR^ishhNa says that He is the One Who is present in every heart
(sarvasya chAhaM hR^idi sannivishhto SBG 15.15). I would like to think
that this is the world vision Arjuna saw as vishvarUpa; namely, he saw the
One undivided in all that appears to be divided, that was as luminious as
thousand suns, rather than a kilolimb giant. In shrI kR^ishhNa¹s own
words ( SBG 11.47), it is His original, limitless, (yet) world-form. The
world is not limitless, but God is, what then, is the justification of
calling it Œworld form¹? It would be a contradiction of terms, unless, He
was showing his transcendent form over the universe.
arjuNa described this transcendent form in a most unusual way (SBG
11.46). When he was scared of seeing the kAla manifestation, he wanted to
see Him as he had seen Him (four-armed) before. [It should be noted
however, that some old manuscripts of the SBG has the word Œbhujadvayena¹
instead of the most common ŒchaturbhUjena¹ in this verse. It appears from
the verses that follow (SBG 11.50,51), that arjuna saw the human,
two-armed vAsudeva form as he used to see before, not a four armed
form.] Arjuna describes (SBG 11.38) the vishvarUpa as original deva
(Adideva) and the purAn purUshha, ultimate container of the world (tvam
purAna purUshha, asya vishvasya paraM nidhAnaM), also as the ultimate goal
(parama dhAma), by whom the world has been elaborated (tvayA vishvaM
tataM). The next verse (SBG 11.39) describes his vision more succintly,
arjuna says, you are vAyu, yama, agni, varuna, shashAnka, prajApati
(brahmA), and the greatgrandfather (vishhNu). These descriptions would be
inconsistent with God being a separate kilolimb giant, and suggest that
arjuNa saw Him in all these different devas. The vision of everything as
vAsudeva has been described as an advanced vision, available to mahAtmAs
(SBG 7.19), that might be the vision arjuna had by Divine grace (SBG
11.39).The next verse (SBG 11.40) is the most unique, in which, arjuna
identifies His frontside, backside and all sides and says that He is
present in all directions, therefore he describes Him as sarvaH
(svarUpa). He would not be sarvaH without a reference to the
multiplicity. Therefore, arjuna must have bowed to the various devas (SBG
11.39) in whom he saw Him, and bowed to them (SBG 11.40). This can be
nothing else than the sarvagata AtmA.
I found confirmation of this analysis in the charaka saMhitA in the 2nd
chapter of shArIra-sthAna.
This is narrated by R^ishhi Atreya to R^ishhi agnivesha as he describes
the passage of jivAtman.
bhutaischaturbhiH sahitaH sa sukshmairmanojabo dehamupaiti dehAt.h
karmAtmakatvAnnatu tasya dR^ishyaM divyaM vinA darshanamasti rUpaM.
sa sarvagaH sarvasharIrabhR^ichcha sa vishvakarmA sa cha vishvarUpaH
sa chetanAdhAturatIndriyascha sa nityayuk.h sAnushayaH sa eva.
jivAtman, because of picking up karma (karmAtmakatva), goes from one body
to another with the four sukshmabhutas by the speed of mind. That sight
is not seeable with any other sight than divyadR^ishhTi.
That Atman is sarvagata, the provider of all bodies, He is vishvakarmA,
vishvarUpa, chetanA-dhAtu, atIndriya. He is always connected with body,
therefore is following (karma).
In these verses, divya-dR^ishhTi and GYAna-dR^ishhTi are equated and also,
the vishvarUpa is ascribed to the jivAtman.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
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