नरो न योगी न तु कारकश्च नांशावतारो न नयप्रवीणः।
भवाश्रयत्वाच्च गुणाश्रयत्वात्कृष्णस्तु साक्षाद् भगवन् स्वयं हि॥
In the scriptures the marks of God-head are mentioned as follow;
उत्पत्तिम् प्रलयम् च एव भूतानाम् आगतिम् गतिम्।
वेत्ति विद्याम् अविद्याम् च सः वाच्यः भगवान् इति॥
(विष्णुपुराण ६ / ५ / ७८)
He who knows the creation and dissolution, going to heaven and returning to the earth of all beings and also their knowledge as well as, ignorance is termed as the Bhagawan, the Supreme God-head.
He declares in the Gita – during the dissolution, all the beings enter My Nature and at the beginning of creation, I send them forth again wielding My Nature (9/7-8). All embodied beings emanate (at the beginning of creation) from Lord Brahma’s subtle body at the arrival of the Cosmic Day and at the Cosmic Nightfall (at the time of dissolution) they merge into the same subtle body of Brahma” (8-18-19). Thus Lord Krishna knows the creation and dissolution of all beings.
He further declares;
“I know the beings of the past, the present and the future i.e. the species they were born in, the species they are born in and the species they will be born in” (7/26).
“Those who performing meritorious deeds such as sacrifice and charity etc. with some interested motive to go to heaven and there having enjoyed the reward of their virtuous deeds return to the world of mortals on the exhaustion of their merits” (9/21-22).
“There are two paths, the bright one and the dark one. By the bright path a man does not to return to this mortal world; however by the dark path a man returns to this mortal world once again” (8/26).
“The beings with demoniac nature are hurled into the demoniac wombs again and again and then they verily fall to a still lower plan viz. horrible hells” (16/19-20).
Thus, the Lord knows the going and returning of all beings.
Arjuna says to Lord Krishna, “There is no one else except You, who can destroy this doubt of mine about the fate a man meets with at the time of death, whose mind deviates from Yoga” (6/39). Thus Arjuna’s words prove that Lord Krishna fully knows the fate and going and returning of all beings.
In 9/4, the Lord also declares that, “All this world is pervaded by Me in the unmanifested form; all beings dwell in Me but I do not dwell in them”. In 9/5, the Lord declares, “Nor do beings dwell in Me; behold My Divine Yoga! Bringing forth and supporting beings, My Self does not dwell in the beings”. There appears to be a contradiction in 9/5. The 9/4 admits the existence of beings in Brahman while 9/5 denies the existence of beings in Brahman. This deliberate contradiction in essence confirms the non-existence of beings. The existence of beings as per 9/4, has only an illusory appearance to the eyes of the deluded. Beings do not actually exist. Only Brahman exists. Only the enlightened one experiences this stark reality and truth, which is that the Brahman alone supports the illusory phenomenon of this world.
This is known as the sovereign science (knowledge). The deluded possessing demoniac traits do not seek refuge in Him (7/15). This is in fact ignorance. Thus, the Lord is aware of both knowledge and ignorance.
Thus Lord Krishna is proved to be God as He knows the creation and dissolution, going and returning as well as knowledge and ignorance of all beings.
A man, who through the performance of virtuous deeds and practice of spiritual discipline attains the high state, is called a ‘Mahatma’, a great person. Those who hold the opinion that Lord Krishna was also a great person are totally wrong. Lord Krishna was an incarnation of the Supreme Brahman – God. He, who does rise high through spiritual practice, is an ‘Uttara’ (one who has an ascent) rather than an incarnation (one who has a descent). An incarnation (descent) is he who descends from his high state to the state of a man in order to perform some special action. A teacher while teaching alphabet to a child repeats the alphabet time and again himself in order to explain the letters to the child. This is the teacher’s descent to the class of the child. But at that time also he possesses the same learning. Similarly, God in order to protect the good, to destroy the wicked and to establish righteousness, in spite of being unborn, is born; in spite of being imperishable, conceals himself and in spite of being master of all beings, becomes obedient to parents (4/6). But in spite of His descent to this mortal world, He remains unborn, imperishable and divine.
Those who consider Lord Krishna a Yogi, rather than God are totally wrong. A Yogi is the one who sets at rest the vagaries of mind and possesses the eight qualities of Yoga. Out of those eight qualities (parts) the first one is Yama (self restraint). The self restraint consists of harmlessness, veracity, continence, non-stealing and non-acquisition. Therefore, a Yogi always speaks the truth. If he does not speak the truth, then he cannot be called a Yogi because he has not even possessed the first quality of a Yogi. Therefore, those who regard Lord Krishna as a Yogi will have to accept Him as God because He Himself has declared that He is the God as per the following verses in the Gita;
“In spite of being the Lord of beings, I come into beings” (4/6),
“I am seated in the hearts of all beings” (15/15),
“I hurl the evil doers, who being malicious hate Me in their own bodies and those of others, into the wombs of the demons only” (16/18-19),
“Those men without faith, who practice violent austerities not enjoined by the scriptures and who are given to hypocrisy, egoism, desire and attachment, torture their bodily organs and Me too, Who dwells in their hearts” (17/5-6).
The Lord by positive and negative inference also declares Himself as God-head as per the following verses in the Gita –
“Those who know Me as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds, attain peace” (5/29),
“Those who know Me as unborn and beginning-less and the Supreme Lord of the universe are freed from delusion and all kinds of sins” (10/3),
“But those who without knowing My Supreme Nature, regarding Me as an ordinary man slight Me are deluded (foolish)” (9/11),
“Those who do not regard Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifices and the Lord of the whole creation, fall” (9/24),
“I am the Absolute by knowing, whom one attains immortality” (13/12) because, “I am verily that which has to be known by all the Vedas” (15/15).
“I am the only source of the entire creation and the whole universe is permeated by Me” (7/6-7).
“Whatever entities may exist; they are all born of a combination of the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance” (7/12).
“The diverse traits of being such as intellect, wisdom and non-delusion etc. emanate from Me alone (10/4-5).
“There is no being or thing, whether animate or inanimate, movable or immovable which exists without Me” (10/39) and
“I stand supporting the entire universe with a single fragment of Myself” (10/42).
“Wielding My nature I send forth all this multitude of beings” (9/8) or “With Me as the supervisor, Nature brings forth the whole creation” (9/10).
The Lord while mentioning His divine glories from the twentieth to the thirty-eighth verses has mentioned His own self. In the eleventh chapter He may vouch-safing the divine vision to Arjuna revealed to him His imperishable, divine cosmic form. When Arjuna was afraid by seeing His very terrible cosmic form, the Lord by showing him His four armed form consoled him and finally He became two armed. It means that if Lord Krishna is a Yogi, He speaks the truth and if He speaks the truth then He is God because Lord Krishna Himself has declared that He is God. Therefore, one who considers Him to be a Yogi, will have to simultaneously accept that He is God-head as well.
Narayan ! Narayan !! Narayan !!!
From book ‘Gita Darpan’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji
Comments are closed.