Bhagavad Gita Ch11 part 10 on 08 November 2020

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM VASUDE VASUDAM DEVAM KAMSA CHAANURA MARDANAM DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURUM SARVO PANISHADHO GAVO DOGDHA GOPALANANDANAH PARTHO VATSASUDHIRU BHOKTA DUGDHAM GEETAM RITAM MAHAT MOOKAM KARO DIVACHALAM PANGUM LANGAYATHE GIRIM YAD KRIPATAM AHAM VANDE PARAMANANDA MADHAVAM We will be continuing studying of the 11th chapter Vishwaroopa Darshana Yoga from where we have left off yesterday night. So far we had discussed until the 23rd verse shloka. Arjuna was wonder-struck, thunder-struck, scared, fear-struck, but God has given him a little bit of power to withstand that intolerable Tejas, that splendor, that light, as if a thousand suns have been at the same time risen in the East. When we look at it, we can't even look at one sun, but thousand suns, means not thousand, a billion, billion suns, but it is not ordinary light, it is not ordinary eyes. They are divine eyes and the splendor is also spiritual splendor, divine light, but even then, as we discussed yesterday, the whole phenomena, Srishti, Stithi, Laya, creation, sustenance and destruction, that is the correct word, is hard to bear for all of us. So the Lord is manifested in the form of time. That is a special point, let us keep in mind. The Lord himself is going to tell, as Arjuna could not recognize and he says, Oh Lord, I do not know, you tell me what you are and what is your greatness, what purpose, what is the prayojana, for what utility you have been appearing in this terrific form. Another point we have to note down also, that everything in this world is determined. Wars are not created by this country or that country, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, elections, nothing is created by human beings. We are such fools. We think we determine the fate of somebody. It is absolutely wrong. That divine Lord, that Ishwara resides in the hearts of all of us and then like a puppeteer, he moves all of us. I quoted the story of Swami Vivekananda, feeling that I should have protected the Divine Mother's temple at Ksher Bhavani. So we have to remember, it is the divine will. And in this 11th chapter, the Lord categorically He is stating, first of all, the whole universe, Jagat is nothing but subject to time, space and causation, specially time, the birth, the growth and the destruction. Srishti, Stithi, Laya, all these take place like a circle, like a huge cycle in time. And a time is always flowing. Starts somewhere and proceeds and then ends. Where? When? Every second is a starting point for many and every second is a starting end point for many. Every second is a middle point to all of us. This particular verse is telling us which one, 24th, Arjuna's experience. What is it? Let us read. When I look upon thy blazing form, reaching to the skies and shining in so many colours, when I see thee with so many mouths opened wide and thy great eyes glowing bright, my inmost soul trembles in fear, and I find neither courage nor peace, O Vishnu. So this was Arjuna's expression. Then further what was he saying? 25th verse. When I behold thy mouths striking terror with their huge tusks, like times all-consuming fire, I am disoriented and find no peace. Be gracious, O Lord of the Gods, O Abode of the Universe. This is what Arjuna is expressing by thinking. No, instinctively, as soon as he beheld, Ah, my God, that's how we express. What is he saying? Your mouths. How many mouths? Infinite mouths. And in each mouth, terrible tusks are there, huge teeth are there, so sharp, anything, even just a feather touch, it will be broken into pieces. And how, then what else I am saying? And each mouth is like anala. Ala means sufficient, anala means insufficient. Fire has got this epithet. Agni has got this epithet. Anala means the more firewood you ply into fire, the more it increases its blaze and power. And if you put petrol, it will blaze even more. It doesn't say any time ever I had enough, you don't give me any more. It goes on desiring and wanting more and more and more. This kala, anala, kala, anala, those who are studying Sanskrit, be careful. Anila means, ila means a place to stay. Anila means one who has no place to stay. That is called air, wind. Here, anala, na, alam, it is not sufficient, fire. So, like Mrityu's fire, it is all-consuming fire. Arjuna himself unconsciously is using this word kala. Kala means time, time's all-consuming fire. Just imagine, California or Australia, a terrific forest fire. No human being can ever put out. It has to become cool by after consuming everything. Like Arjuna helped Agnateva to reduce that khandava vana, like that. This is the end of the world as it were. We have to understand it both in its esoteric meaning also and exoteric meaning also. What does it mean? Exoteric meaning means, there are certain periods of time, we call it pralaya kala, when the whole srishti comes to an end temporarily, means it just withdraws into itself and at the beginning of the new day or Brahma's day, remember Bhagavad Gita, sahasra yuga pariyantam ahariyat brahmano viduhu, ratrim yuga sahasrantam. So, 1000 yugas is one day, 1000 yugas is one night, 2000 yugas consists the 24 hours of Brahma. So, when night time comes, entire creation is withdrawn. But when the same thing, when the day time comes, entire creation restarts with the seeds that are gathered. So, Brahma doesn't really create, neither he destroys. Brahma is an instrument, who creates? I create my world, you create your world, each one of us create our own world through the seeds, vija, vija means here, vasanas, samskaras of our past lives. But here, what was Arjuna seeing? A terrific, unputdownable fire of kala, means Yamadharma Raja's fire. Kala is another name for Yamadharma Raja. Kala means time, time comes, everything has to go back. So, what is Arjuna telling? Just by merely beholding, that fire which is coming with a terrific force, like the fire dragon from your mouths, infinite number of mouths, having seen them, I don't know what is east, what is west, what is north, what is south, what is above, what is below, neither do get any opportunity to think. If we have to think rationally, we have to become calm and quiet. In a fit of anger, in a temporary, emotionally charged mind, whatever we think usually, turns out to be a wrong thing for us to do it. This word Kala, Anila, Sannivani, Kala, Anala, Sannivani, which are comparable to Pralaya, Kala, Agni. So, what does it mean? Everything is going to be destroyed. What does destruction mean? We know, we have discussed in earlier also, according to Vedanta, the Atman manifests as space, Akasha. Akasha further grossifies in the form of Vayu, the air. Vayu grossifies into Agni, fire. Agni grossifies into Jala, water. And water grossifies into Prithvi. And we are seeing with our five sense organs, experiencing this grossest aspect of Brahman, which is called this earth. And all the plants, insects, birds, animals, creepy things, both mountains, rivers, moving, non-moving, when visible and invisible, living and non-living, all these consisting of on this earth. Why did I say invisible? Invisible doesn't mean subtle. Invisible means, for ordinary human eyes, they are not visible. But you know, the scientists have found out, even this bacteria, even this virus, they have their own enemies in their own world. One virus wants to eat up another virus. So, both of them, they preyed upon and the animal which is preying, both of them are able to see each other very clearly, as we see each other clearly. So, invisible means, invisible to the range of our sense perception. Similarly, with sound, similarly with smell, a bear can smell even a rotting or the presence of a baby seal 10 miles away. And exactly it can find out, we have seen in the David Attenborough's this thing, it jumps, removes the eyes and catches hold of the squealing seal and then swallows it. That is life. Just imagine, when the seal is caught and then what is it seeing? In the mouth of the bear, Kaala Anala Sanniba Agni, that Jatara Agni is burning bright. What are we talking about? Time. What happens? This earth comes to an end. What does it mean? It merges in its cause, which is water. Then water comes to an end. What does it mean? It merges in its cause, which is fire. Fire merges in air. Air merges in space. Space merges in Atman. And again, after some time, it comes back. So, this circle, birth and sustenance, growth as well as destruction, goes on cyclically all the time. But here Arjuna is seeing as if the entire world is going inside. In his fright, he could not understand that everything is not really disappearing. So, some Srishti is going on, Stithi is going on and Laya is going on. How do we know? Because Siddhas and Akshas, Aksha, Rakshasa, Siddha, Gandharva, all these people were standing. Vishmit Aschi Resarve, they are not getting into destruction. They are frightened. They are granted this vision and they could not stand it. But somehow they could see it. But they got terribly frightened. Swasthi Tyaktva Maharshi Siddha Sangha. That is called the state of Stithi, means everybody is not dying. Not only that, infinite worlds are being born and staying for some time and disappearing into the same mouth. Remember what Markandeya saw in the mouth of Bhagavan Vishnu, whose vision he had like Mother Yashoda had the vision of infinite number of worlds in the mouth of this baby Krishna. So, we can only talk when you are frightened. When you are in a dense forest, you can also find any direction. When it is deep darkness, if you are lost, you cannot find direction. These are physical things. And if mind is not functioning, you don't know whether to go right. When several times when people drive, you know what happens? Something catches their attention and then he loses his self-control. He doesn't know. Instead of turning, if he had turned to the left, possibly he would have avoided an accident. But he does exactly the opposite. This is called losing directions and a terrific accident is there. After looking back, he says, I should have turned the other way, but I did not know what I was doing. This is exactly what was happening to this person. I remember a beautiful incident in the life of Swami Akhandanandaji. He was a great wanderer and then once he went to Himalayas. Many years he spent there. There is one Chandramukhi temple is there in a very high mountain range, Shikara. And he liked it so much. It was absolutely a solitary place. Very few people go excepting from a nearby village. A Brahmana priest comes and then he offers food. I think he cooks it himself or got it prepared at home, brings it, offers it to Mother Chandramukhi and then Prasada is taken. Usually on special days, devotees visit. They know the way, local villagers. They all come together. Swami Akhandanandaji heard about it, visited the place, charmed by that place, took the permission of the priest to spend that night in the temple itself. The priest was a good man and he fed Swami with the Prasada. Said, Swami, you take rest. Tomorrow morning I will come. So next morning he came, again performed Pooja, gave Prasada to the Swami and Swami at about 9 o'clock or so, he wanted to come down from that Himalayan high region. But the priest had given him directions. You want to go to that place, this is what you will do. And it was so complicated. Akhandanandaji thought he would remember, entered into deep forest, he came to such a place where even sunlight was very difficult to see and he did not know which was east, west, south, north, whether to turn towards the east, but Sankatakale Venkataramana. What did he do? So he simply said, Thakur, you will have to take me, but this is what I will do. I will stand here and whirl round and round and round and round and after lot of whirling round, I will suddenly, without thinking, come to a stop. In whichever direction I am facing, I will take it, that direction is the right path and you will have to make me stop facing that right direction. With this sincere prayer, he whirled round and round and after a minute or two, suddenly he stopped without thinking and as per his promise to Thakur, he started walking in that direction and within an hour or so, he came to the edge of the forest and there was a steep hill going down. He could see far below farmers harvesting their fields, then he has to get down, there is no other way. So he was describing graphically, I practically like children in the park slide down on that slider, these things. I lied myself down, started sliding down, holding on to the roots of creepers that whatever came and within 15-20 minutes, he came down and by that time, it was noon and the farmers stopped working and they opened their lunch boxes, bags and started eating and here walks Swami from that direction. The fields were just at the foothill of that hill and they were shocked. Where from are you coming? I am coming from Chandramukhi temple. They said, Swami, God must have guided you. We have in our whole life, we have never seen anybody coming this way. There was absolutely no way anybody can come this way. You are saved by God, otherwise you would have been dead in the forest and they shared their simple food with the Swami and this beautiful incident was narrated in the life of Akhandananda Swami. So now Arjuna, what are you going to do? Dishonarjane, you don't know what directions. So it is impossible even if you pray. Why? Because in which direction is not God. He is there in every direction, is a universal. You turn into whatever direction. Yes, yes, I can turn. Then what is my problem? I want to turn away to see that form of God which is Saumya, very soft, very soothing, not at all frightening, so sweet, so loving. But wherever I turn, I see only Kaala Nala Sanniva, terrific fires emerging from a billion, billion mouths. What shall I do? So time is meaningless and space is meaningless and then when we are suffering, time stretches into infinity. So like that space also stretches. This is how when people suffer too much, what happens? These people, they lose all faith in God. So long as everything is going on, I know the right time, I know the right space, I know the right utility, I am working what we call normality, sanity, sane person. But something starts going wrong and Murphy's law, if something has to go wrong, it will definitely go wrong. So he is telling, Arjuna was saying, I do not feel any peace because where there is fear, there is no peace. Where there is peace, there is no fear. So further what was Arjuna saying? Two verses together we have to chant here. What a ferocious, frightening description of Bhagawan. Sometimes a wildlife documentaries, some great scientists like David Attenborough, they will show. So there was one special documentary on crocodiles, American, Egyptian crocodiles like that. So this crocodile, when there is a huge river there and then many animals have to cross that river and the crocodiles know this is the time of the year when they have to cross in search of new grass and half a million of these wild beasts cross that plains. It is a mind-boggling sight. You can just see YouTube, it is available and then these wild beasts also know that these crocodiles are waiting and then they have no option, pressure mounts from behind. So those who are in front, one jumps, there is no option but tries to swim to the other side and all the crocodiles are waiting and they catch hold of some and then you know crocodile have no teeth. Teeth are there but they cannot chew. So what do they do? They only swallow. For that they need small chunks of meat. So what do they do? They go on running upside down, upside down, going round and round in the water and in that process a limb is stolen and every crocodile which is attacking the same animal gets a leg or some part and it's ensues and then some get the head. What is happening? Half the head is chewed and the other half is hanging. You can see clearly from both sides of the mouth some pieces of meat is hanging, water is also flowing. It's a most horrifying sight in the world. If you can keep this picture in mind, let us see. What is Arjuna telling? All these sons of Dhritarashtra together with the hosts of monarchs Bhishma, Rona, Karna and the warrior ships of our side as well as Duryodhana's side, they enter precipitately by tusked and terrible mouths. Frightful to behold, some are seen caught between the teeth, their heads crushed to powder and other parts hanging together like this wild beast is hanging piece of their meat in the mouths of crocodiles or lions or tigers or whatever, even birds like that. Ami means these. So how are you looking? Oh Lord, for me Dhritarashtra's son, the sons of Dhritarashtra. Good news because that is what Arjuna wanted actually. He did not know how this election is going to go, whether he is going to win or the other party is going to win but everybody keeps up their hopes. So here he sees clearly all the children of Dhritarashtra. How many children? 100. Survey all of them, not only that. So many people, nearly 11,000 people participated on the side of Kaurava and 7,000 people participated on the side of the Pandavas. 18 Akshavani's have been totally destroyed. How many survived? Probably, I don't remember, less than 10. Seven, eight, nine, something of Pancha Pandavas and then is Kripacharya and one I think Satyaki or somebody. So only a few, Ashwatthama, probably eight people only survived. The rest of them, there is no distinction between Pandavas and Kauravas. Everybody had died. How did they die? What was happening? So this is being graphically described here. With tremendous speed, God's mouth had become like what is called wind is sucked inside. So like that tremendous or like a false. Suddenly the water finds there is a low ground and with the greatest speed like if you have noticed that Ganga is coming from Gangotri. With the greatest speed, so cold. Like that all these people are entering into your mouths. What are the types of mouths? These are terrifying. The very sight completely terrifies them. Dhamstra, Karala is such terrible tusks, such terrible sharp teeth and your mouths are completely open, millions of mouths and they are like Yamadharma Raja's mouth, like a tiger's mouth, like a mammoth's mouth. They are all helplessly like a huge waterfall is falling helplessly. They are all going. Who are they? So all these sons of the Dhritarashtra, Kauravas it means. Then along with them whoever given, all these I remember. So all the kings, smaller kings, bigger kings that have joined either Kaurava party or Pandava party. All of them, Avani, Pala, Sangai. Avani means Bhumi. Pala means those who rule. Sangai, rows of them, numbers of them. Okay sir, what about I refuse to fight because I don't want Bhishma and Drona to die. But what is happening? Bhishma also is entering into that mouth. What about Drona? Drona is also entering. Terrible news for Arjuna. But good news also is there. Suta Putraha, Karna, the number one arch enemy of Pandavas, especially of Arjuna and then he also, what is in Tatha Asav, Saha Asmadiyai. Asmadiyai, not only Yushmadiyai, not only belonging to Kauravas, Asmadiyai. All the people, all the soldiers, all the kings, all the Chakravartis, every Yodha, every soldier. Saha Asmadiyai Rapi, Yodha Mukhiyai. All the named and famed Yodhas, you get in Mahabharata, endless number of them. What are they doing? Dwaramanaha, with terrific speed. Te Vaktrani Vishanti, they are all entering into your mouth and those mouths are terrible. Dhamstra Karalani, even to look at, Bhayanikani, frightening and full of these teeth, maybe a thousand sharp teeth like a shark. And once a fish enters into the shark's mouth, absolutely it will be powdered, pasted, like coconut chutney. Kecid Vilagna, but even then, some people have this Uttama Angai, means the head. Anga means part of the body. Uttama Anga means the best of the part of the body, which is called the head. So, all these heads are entering first and it is being crushed and sometimes hundred heads, thousand heads are being crushed, like we eat, you know, fried crab, etc. and it is happening. But sometimes a little bit of it is not completely crushed, only a part of it is hanging and that is Churnitai, Uttama Angai. Dashanantareshu Kecid Vilagna, some of them partly have been caught in between the teeth, probably some teeth have been removed from God, we don't know, is a greatest Vedanti. So, some of them could not be completely crushed. So, they are hanging, half hanging, bits of them are hanging. Dashanantareshu Sandrushyante, this is, O Lord, what I am finding it. So, what is the meaning of all these things that Arjuna was an Agnani, an ignorant person. He was granted this beatific vision and beatific vision means integral vision. Integral vision means not part vision. What is the part vision? A baby is born, it's wonderful news, we all celebrate. Oh, conchs are beautifully blown to announce the arrival of Shri Ramakrishna's birth. But who is going to blow a conch when he is suffering from this terrific cancer pain? Did anybody do it? We don't hear anybody doing it because it is the Divine Lord from whom we have come and we are sustained by Him and especially like a crocodile, young ones of crocodile, they are protected in the mouth of the crocodile. For other animals, that is the death trap. For all of us, for the young ones, the safest fort where no other crocodile would ever dare even to touch. The mother crocodile, the ferocious crocodile and even huge males, they just run away. They know that this is a mother, it is not going to leave us like that and it will not be backing up at all. So, this everybody is entering. So, sir, what about Drona and Bhishma, will they be spared? No, they will not be spared. That is bad news. What about good news? This Duryodhana entered, we have to understand, Dushyasana entered, Karna entered, Shakuni entered, all of them entered. Is that good news? Wonderful news. So, my dear Arjuna, you should swallow both. If you don't want to accept, don't accept anybody's death. If you want to accept, you have to accept everybody's death because time does not spare anybody. That is what we have to understand that particularly Arjuna's vision was focused upon the mouths of the Lord and it was terrifying. What is that mouth? What does mouth do? Everything comes out of mouth. Words come out of mouth. Food goes inside the mouth. It is completely digested and life is renewed and whatever is not useful will be recycled. So, this mouth of the Lord is representative of Kaala Chakra, Kaala Agni, Kaala Chakra. So, what does Kaala do? Creation comes out of Kaala, sustenance also is done from Kaala, in Kaala and the Pith Royal or so-called destruction is also done in the Kaala. But here Kaala time has come, Mrityu has come in the form of mouth. And what does a mouth do? What does my mouth do? What does your mouth do? Mouth has got only one function, important function. Food, it swallows food and it drinks water, goes, swaha. So, this Kaala, Kaala Mukha, what does it do? Its function is also taking everything. So, what did Arjuna see? Some were swallowed, some are hanging in between to be swallowed. What does a crocodile do? Does it keep forever that hanging piece of flesh? No, after sometime it opens and it just swallows, slowly slowly you can see its mouth, its throat working, takes everything down. And what do you do? So, if you put grain, some grains are simply some, let us say ground nuts, some are becoming powder, some are yet to become powder, some are still sticking by the sides, but you work your way around, slowly bring them into the central place and then slowly go on chewing them. So, this is the picture that is happening in this world. Some are born, some are dying. When? At the same millisecond, some mothers are giving birth and some creatures are giving up their life breath, pranavayu is going on and some are hanging. So, one Swami has given a beautiful analogy that is everybody is being eaten by the divine Lord in the form of kala. So, what does he do? There is a person is suffering from headache, that is also a little bit of pressure of the teeth of the Lord. Some people have got cancer, some people have got heart attack, cardiac problem, some people have got covid problem, some people have got what old age, some people have got what is called Parkinson. What are all these? This is a little bit still hanging in the mouth of the Lord, not yet completely swallowed and crushed. Time is eating all of us in the form of growth, in the form of diseases, in the form of all these things. So, here this is the greatest fright Arjuna has got in his life. Supposing just for imagination, let us create this one. Arjuna is seeing God is swallowing only the Kauravas but he is also sparing Bhishma, Drona and some other people whom they know. For example, one of the youngest sons of Dhritarashtra is one of the greatest persons. He understood what is Dharma. He turned against his own brothers and he became, it is said, a spy. What his brothers were discussing plans, he will come and convey it at night to the Pandava party. So, there are many good people but good, bad, everybody is subject to death. Saint will die. Sinner will die. A righteous person will die. Unrighteous person also will die. A rich man will die. Poor man will die. Everybody is subject, not only subject to death. We are not only talking about death in one aspect. We are talking of death in other aspects. Here is a rich man. He lost all his riches. He has become poor. And here is a poor man who suffered a lot. Suddenly he comes. Ramakrishna gives. This is called Hatat Siddha. Here is a poor boy and he is struggling to study well and a rich man's notice is drawn to this boy that rich man had a daughter to be married and then he proposes and then this boy becomes his son-in-law and then he gives land, a job, bank balance, first class house, servants, all the amenities because of his daughter. Hatat Siddha. Like that we see some people enjoying, some people suffering, some people are up, some people are down. This is called Vishwaroopa and what Arjuna wanted to see was only the pleasant side of it which is we are going to win and of course the Lord assures him you are going to win but what are you going to win? There would be very few people left out whom you are going to rule over. Such is the nature of this war. Oh Lord, why did you create this war then? That is my pleasure. That is my will. That is like Kshere Bhavani says that is my will. I want this temple to come into being and I want it to be destroyed. I am tired of this old building. I want a new building. Somebody should be there to facilitate that one. So what is the important thing we have to learn that life is full of birth, sustenance and death. It is a fact of life. Anything that is in this world, it has to go back to its limit and so long as we do not accept this fact, we are going to be extremely miserable. That is why this Krishna, Bhagavan Krishna in this very Bhagavad Gita, what is he telling? Natvam shochitam rahasi, apariharyarthi. This is birth is common, death is common. Whatever is born is going to die. Whatever is dead is going surely to be reborn. Tasmad therefore apariharyarthi. When you are totally helpless, this is a given fact. What is the point of your grieving for it? Do not do it. So this is the lesson the scripture wants to tell us through this Bhagavad Gita. What Arjuna was seeing was not something new. We are seeing it every single minute of our life. So many creatures are born. So many creatures are dead. So many creatures are enjoying. So many creatures are suffering and what Arjuna saw terrified him because he could see the truth but we are ignorant. We close our eyes. We think like the ostrich which puts its head inside the sand and says there is no danger at all. When tiger is chasing or lion is chasing it and it is about to fall, oh I am very safe. We are like that ostriches trying to hide our heads in ignorance. That is not going to work out. So second factor you have to understand is when did this vision come? If it was in a temple, probably you will get a most beautific vision but this vision is taking place in a battlefield, a terrible war, world war and what happens? Holocaust. So many lives will be snuffed out within the twinkling of a very short time in that battlefield. So Arjuna could not accept that fact but he will be made to accept. How do we know? In the end, Krishna asks him, did you become enlightened by my talk? He says, My delusion is gone. That means I know what is the truth about life and my memory has come back that in this samsara it is there but I do not belong to samsara. I am Amrutaputra and then you asked me to fight as an instrument. I will do that. We are going to come to that very soon. So verse number 28, As the many torrents of the rivers are rushing towards the ocean, so do the heroes of the mortal world rush into their fiercely flaming mouths. Here Arjuna is giving a metaphor, a beautiful analogy. What is it? You look at the different rivers. They are born in so many in the east, in the west, in the south, in the north but all of them may be some are flowing into the ocean through the western direction. Some are in the northern direction. Some are in the southern direction. Some of them in the eastern direction. All the rivers are rushing to meet the ocean and become one with it. Just like that, O Lord, all these, all these valorous heroic soldiers, everybody, all these people that I beheld on both sides, Your mouths which are flaming with terrific hell fires and all these people, what are they doing? They are entering into them just as rivers are rushing. The nearer they are approaching the ocean, the more speed increases and they cannot wait. They want to merge in the ocean. Naturally the question that comes, why do the rivers want to rushing and want to merge? Because instinctively, unconsciously they know this is the origin of our birth. This is where we get our home. This is where we get our rest. This is our mother house. Ultimately everybody has to go to that mother house. Yes, Narendra had sung, Without reason you are roaming, putting on a foreigner's dress in foreign countries. O mind, there will be no rest for you. Let us move back. So this beautiful analogy we will discuss now. So just as every river, where is it born? In the ocean. How is it born? Because the sun lifts them up through the process of distillation by heating and carries them in the form of clouds and then pours them on the tops so that from the higher level they can flow to the lower level. So ultimately water finds its own level and in the process they give life to billions and billions of creatures and this process is going on since creation, since Anadi time. So also then we are also rushing. Rushing where? Into the mouth of the divine lord. What does that mean? Kaala. We have come out of Kaala. We stay for some time in time and we again merge back into Kaala. That means we go beyond time. This is not merely a few soldiers that Arjuna was beholding them. This is the lot of everything in this world. Living, non-living, low creature or high creature. Every living being and where from this living creature has come? Avyakta. From the Annam manifest, it becomes manifest. It stays as manifested for some time and again goes back into the same unmanifest. And remember who is that unmanifest? Supreme Brahman is that Avyakta Purushaha. So this is the nature of life. All of us are running. What does that mean? Like rivers, just as rivers stream from the ocean, we all originated from God. We are living in God from birth to birth. We are all traveling, rushing only towards our mother which is God alone. So death is not death, birth is not birth. It is a tremendous journey and this journey ends only when we meet our mother and taken into her lap. Then only we get the rest. That is what is telling just as all rivers come from the ocean and they ultimately have to go back to ocean. All of us are the children of the immortality. We have come from God and we have to go back to the God. So this vision that he was beholding is not something frightening. It is a joyous vision. But in order to progress fast, we have to accept the dualities of life. Birth – exceedingly joyful. Old age – exceedingly joyful. Disease – exceedingly joyful. Death – exceedingly joyful. Sarva Mangala Mangalya. Everything is Mangala Pradaha. Ultimately we come from God, we journey in God and then we also reach in God only. So we have come to the end of the 28th. What are the lessons? Arjuna beheld the face of time. Time means Srishti Stithi Laya. If we do not accept it, life becomes miserable. When we understand that death is only hastening us towards our real mother, then death becomes a most welcoming thing. And Swami Vekananda had given Sannyasa to some young men and then he gave a talk and that is called Talk on Sannyasa. There Swamiji says, defines, Sannyasa means love of death. How can anybody love death? If it is destruction, then it is terrific. But if it is becoming immortal, it is the most joyous news. So it is the destruction of Ajnana and it is the birth of Jnana or true knowledge or illumination. If that is the meaning of birth and death, especially death means we are coming, approaching like rivers fast flowing towards God, then we understand that that is the greatest truth. That is where Paramashanti, the highest Shanti called Brahmanirvana is obtained by us. So much of Tattva is involved in this so-called externally terrifying descriptions of the universal vision of Arjuna and we will continue them in our next class.