Bhagwad Gita - Post 114

THE YOGA OF THE DIVINE GLORIES

Summary of Tenth Discourse

In the Tenth Chapter we go further, to a greater emphasis of the immanence of God — not God coming sometimes when we are in a state of distress, not a God who provides us with what we need when we need it, but God perpetually residing in all things which are the glories of this world.

God is both beauty and grandeur. Mostly, religions do not consider God as a beautiful person; there is no emphasis on that.  Religions prescribe fatherhood of God, thus keep God far away from us, to be respected, to be feared. So, we always fear God and we think that He has to be respected because of His power and His capacity to punish us. 

We do not embrace God as if He is a beautiful, beloved thing. 

Sakshan manmathamanmathah (S.B. 10.32.2) is a term used in the Bhagawata: “He is the cupid of cupids, the beauty of beauties.” Even if the essences of all the beautiful things in the world—the quintessence of the most beautiful things, human or otherwise, whatever they be—are taken together, it will not stand before the beauty of God. It is very unfortunate that God should be regarded only as a terror, as a justice, and as a fearful person. He is the most enchanting. 

The enchanting, beautiful character of God is especially brought into high relief in the life of Bhagawan Sri Krishna, who is the might of mights, the power of powers, and represents the fatherhood of God in this tremendous incarnation as the height of yogic ecstasy and power; and yet, he was the beauty of beauties. 

The Bhagawata Purana and the Mahabharata also describe Bhagavan Sri Krishna as an incarnation of God, and they remove the partial notion of God as only a father who is merely just and legal in His attitude, rather than compassionate and friendly. 

The friendliness of God, the power of God, the transcendence of God, the superiority of God, the beauty of God, the enchanting capacity of God, the tremendous attraction that He exerts upon us is delineated in Bhagawan Sri Krishna, who is the full incarnation of God. 

Bhakta asks- “Where are You actually present in this world, O Lord? You said that You are in all things. Are You in an atom? Are You in a dustbin? Are You in a tree? Are You in a stone? Where are You?” 

Lord responds- “I am in everything, no doubt, yet My presence can be especially felt in certain exalted manifestations.” Towards that description we are entering the most glorious chapter, the Tenth—where Sri Bhagavan Himself starts speaking without Arjuna raising a question. “I shall speak to you further about My glories and My supernal greatness.”

Krishna tells Arjuna that even the Devas and highly evolved souls fail to understand how He projects Himself as the universe and all its manifestations. He goes on to describe the various qualities that beings manifest according to their Karmas. All these qualities—wisdom, truth, contentment, etc.—originate from Him.

Arjuna accepts the descent of the Supreme in a human form but wishes to know from the Lord Himself His Cosmic powers by means of which He controls the diverse forces of the universe.

The true devotees of the Lord are wholly absorbed in Him. They have completely surrendered to Him and through single-minded devotion they are granted the power of discrimination, the discrimination that leads them from the unreal to the Real. Krishna emphatically declares that ignorance is destroyed, and knowledge gained through Divine Grace alone.

Love.