107 - Combining God’s Grace with Spiritual Readiness | Swami Tattwamayananda

Bhagavad Gita | The Essence of Vedanta

In the 11th chapter, Arjuna experiences the vision of the universal form of the divine. Lord Krishna shows Arjuna his divine form. This cosmic divine form transcends our concept of time and space. He shows that all the different creatures, animals, suns, moons, stars, galaxies, human beings, celestial beings – they all originate, exist, dissolve and re-emerge within that cosmic divine form.
When Arjuna gets this vision, he is freed from all doubts. When we face an adversity in life, such as death, a well-wisher may give us good counsel. But it is not sufficient – we may feel that we are being told what we already know. Imagine, however, that we are given a vision of how every minute, beings are born, beings are dying, they make money, they lose money – then our doubts will be dispelled. This is what happened to Arjuna when he saw the divine form.
Gita starts with Arjuna’s predicament towards a duty that he is expected to do, but that is unpleasant to him. The same Arjuna says in the 73rd verse of the 18th chapter: “By your grace, all my doubts are gone. I shall act according to your instructions.”
This highest experience of seeing the Absolute reality as immanent, all-pervading and transcendental is not possible at the empirical level. It can only be experienced at the spiritual level. Buddha had this experience after meditating for many years at Bodh-Gaya. Buddha was able to see all his previous life cycles. Similarly, Arjuna, with the grace of Lord Krishna, was able to the past, present and future of himself and the entire creation.
7th verse: Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: “You can see this cosmic vision, the entire existence, both moving and unmoving, all within this one Reality.”
Reality is one. Every effort to explain this one, infinite, reality is only an approximation. Purusha-Suktam of Rig Veda says: this reality is both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it. It is infinite and beyond words. It transcends the triple dimensions of time.
In the Ocean, there is only pure water. Waves are just water in another form. Similarly, the entire existence can be viewed in one dimension. Our concept of past, present and future is only imaginary. We only experience the present. We experienced the past when it presented itself as the present. We will experience the future when it presents itself as the present.
8th verse: “But you cannot see this vision of mine with these eyes of yours. I am giving you the celestial eye to behold My vision.”
Lord Krishna granted this vision to Arjuna, not through a special eye, but by removing the impurities from Arjuna’s mind. Normally, our mind is clouded with impurities from our past samskaras that prevent us from realizing our true nature. Everyone can experience this reality by evolving through spiritual practices.
Lord Krishna helped Arjuna by removing the veil of Maya. Maya functions as mental blocks. It is the mystery that we experience in daily life, that defies human logic and that has no satisfactory answers. We can reduce the intensity of Maya by achieving mental purity through karma yoga.
In the Mahabharata, there are other instances where the Lord shows his cosmic form. Both Yashoda and Duryodhana had these opportunities, but it did not have a similar beneficial effect on them. We should be spiritually ready to benefit from God’s grace. Our spiritual efforts and God’s grace must come together.
Sri Ramakrishna said to Swami Vivekananda that God can be seen by a pure buddhi. The purified mind becomes Atman itself.
We listen to scriptures as they give a glimpse into the higher possibilities of life. As we evolve, our mind becomes more ready to translate what we read into our own experience.
During meditation, we should de-identify with our thoughts. This means we should not welcome them, we should not befriend them, and we should not antagonize them.