Chapter 10 - Discern the Divine
This intriguing chapter of 42slokas, known asvibhooti yoga, Glories of the Supreme,characterizes the Omnipresence of the Supreme Spirit. Well, for general human understanding, Lord Krishna identifies the best in heaven and earth that represent all that is glorious about Him. One might note that His averment thatSama Vedaandtapo yagjna, meditative prayer, symbolize the glory of the Supreme was cited in the introduction to the third chapter.
In the context of what Lord Krishna enumerates as symbolic of the ‘Glory of the Supreme Spirit’, it is interesting to note that He’s the sovereign in humans in s27 but not Rama as one would have expected. However, Lord Rama enters the Hall of Fame as the first amongst the archers (s31). Going by the dispassionate outlook towards life that Lord Krishna expostulates, it is but natural that Lord Rama who personifies attachment to the values of his time is not reckoned as the Glory of the Supreme Spirit. It is another matter that in the Hindu religio-cultural ethos, Lord Rama is revered aspurushottama, the noblest human.
1
Thus spoke the Lord:
Ear thy lend My words peerless
Bound they regale as thee gain.
2
Sourced though gods ’n seers in Me
Grasp they have none of My source.
3
Me as Lord of all who sees
Turns his back on wrongdoings.
4
Sourced in Me all faculties
State of mind of beings too.
5
Varied I made vicissitudes
As the case with attitudes.
6
Willed I birth of progenitors all
Seven seers great ’n elders four
Not to mention sovereign fourteen.
7
Grasps as one the power of Mine
Keeps he would his mind then firm.
8
Who this gets in My worship
Tends he then to turn to Me.
9
Whoso to Me thus taken
Delight he takes in praising Me.
10
Him I help to realize that
Which is needed to reach Me.
11
Doubts I dispel his for good
Grant I wisdom to his thought.
12
Thus spoke Arjuna:
O Lord Thou, Supreme Brahman
Abode Ultimate, Purifier Primordial
Indweller Permanent ’n God Primeval.
13
That’s how sages down the ages
Narada foremost described Thee,
Affirmed Asita, Devala ’n Vyasa
All of that now Thou confirm.
14
None can ever be sure of Thee
Hold I true thus what Thou say.
15
God of gods
O Lord of all,
Thou but know
Self Thy true.
16
Pray Thee confide Thy nature
With which Thou all worlds transcend.
17
How to grasp all aspects Thine,
How to engage Thee in mind?
18
Make me privy, O, My Lord
Forms ’n attributes of Thyself.
19
Thus spoke the Lord:
Of all countless Glories Mine
Suffice thee knew a few of them.