Powerful Cognition
In the body of the supreme Lord, Arjuna saw the whole universe divided in different ways and at the same time united in one form. The universe is divided into many parts such as the sun, moon, earth, planets and other bodies in space. Here he sees all of them as one form.
These verses show the unlimited, never-ending, wonderful, all pervading nature of the Lord. Ramakrsna says that when he experienced the form, the cosmic consciousness, he could not pluck a single flower from a plant, because he felt that all the plants were garlands offered to God. In that mood, plucking a flower hurts. A wild animal responds peacefully to your presence. There is no violence in cosmic consciousness. There is only acceptance and inclusion.
This is what Arjuna saw in the universal form, an unlimited number of mouths, eyes, and wonderful visions. The form was decorated with many celestial ornaments and bore many divine upraised weapons. He wore celestial garlands and garments. Many divine scents were smeared all over His body. All was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding. Here he sees an unlimited number of mouths and eyes in Krsna. Now Arjuna sees 360 degrees in both horizontal and vertical dimensions.
He sees the whole universe, all the people on the battlefield, all of them inside Krsna, as the universal consciousness. He sees the Whole as his own being.
There is no boundary to Krsna's universal form. The word Visnu, which is his real form, means one who expands infinitely. The splendor that Sanjaya talks about is beyond anything the mind can comprehend, because it is the source of all splendors.
Notice, it is Sanjaya speaking these words, not Arjuna. Sanjaya is far from the battlefield and has been given the power to see what happens on the battlefield, so that he can describe the events to his king Dhrtarastra. Though Krsna says that this form is being shown only to Arjuna, by default Sanjaya has the great fortune to witness and participate in this Vision.
Arjuna is awestruck and is in silence. He is yet to speak. What he has witnessed is beyond anything that he could have imagined or asked for. But the silence is a very active silence. It is a silence in which he experiences the truth of Krsna. It is a silence in which he is actively participating in the process and is being immersed. Sanjaya then summarizes Arjuna's reaction to the divine form of Krsna in the last few verses. Arjuna is still silent and it is Sanjaya who describes what happens. What Arjuna saw was beyond his understanding.
Wherever he looked was Krsna; Krsna in many forms, many shapes, many non-forms, and non shapes. There are no words to describe what Arjuna saw. How does one describe what is beyond the mind, beyond logic, beyond words, beyond all comprehension? In the body of the supreme Lord, Arjuna saw the whole universe divided in different ways and at the same time united in one form. The universe is divided into many parts such as the sun, moon, earth, planets and other bodies in space. Here he sees all of them as one form.
Arjuna is able to see the whole and at the same time all the parts. Even the word hologram, that we now so commonly use to describe the totality of something preserved in a fragment, does no justice to Arjuna's vision. In a hologram, one needs to make the effort to see the whole in the fragment. In this divine vision granted to Arjuna the whole existed with the part with no separation, no discontinuity. The whole was part and the part was whole.
Of all the people on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, only Arjuna had this great fortune to behold the cosmic vision of Krsna. Only he was granted the boon of divine vision to see the entire universe within Krsna. The vision that Arjuna beheld enveloped him completely. He was, in fact, part of that vision
To help the child understand that, ourselves, and those around us are all part of the whole cosmic consciousness. GOALS: