Bhagavad Gita As It Is

TEXT 8
na tu mäà çakyase drañöum
anenaiva sva-cakñuñä
divyaà dadämi te cakñuù
paçya me yogam aiçvaram

na—never; tu—but; mäm—Me; çakyase—able; drañöum—to see; anena—by this; eva—certainly; sva-cakñuñä—with your own eyes; divyam—divine; dadämi—I give; te—you; cakñuù—eyes; paçya—see; me—My; yogam aiçvaram—inconceivable mystic power.

TRANSLATION

But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence.

PURPORT

A pure devotee does not like to see Kåñëa in any form except His form with two hands; a devotee must see His universal form by His grace, not with the mind but with spiritual eyes. To see the universal form of Kåñëa, Arjuna is told not to change his mind but his vision. The universal form of Kåñëa is not very important; that will be clear in the verses. Yet because Arjuna wanted to see it, the Lord gives him the particular vision required to see that universal form.

Devotees who are correctly situated in a transcendental relationship with Kåñëa are attracted by loving features, not by a godless display of opulences. The playmates of Kåñëa, the friends of Kåñëa and the parents of Kåñëa never want Kåñëa to show His opulences. They are so immersed in pure love that they do not even know that Kåñëa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In their loving exchange they forget that Kåñëa is the Supreme Lord. In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam it is stated that the boys who play with Kåñëa are all highly pious souls, and after many, many births they are able to play with Kåñëa. Such boys do not know that Kåñëa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They take Him as a personal friend. The Supreme Person is considered as the impersonal Brahman by great sages, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the devotees, and as a product of this material nature by ordinary men. The fact is that the devotee is not concerned to see the viçva-rüpa, the universal form, but Arjuna wanted to see it to substantiate Kåñëa’s statement so that in the future people could understand that Kåñëa not only theoretically or philosophically presented Himself as the Supreme but actually presented Himself as such to Arjuna. Arjuna must confirm this because Arjuna is the beginning of the paramparä system. Those who are actually interested to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa, and who follow in the footsteps of Arjuna should understand that Kåñëa not only theoretically presented Himself as the Supreme, but actually revealed Himself as the Supreme.

The Lord gave Arjuna the necessary power to see His universal form because He knew that Arjuna did not particularly want to see it, as we have already explained.

IceRocket Tags: Nollmeyer,human rights,ethics,censorship,environment,political philosophy,political economy,iskcon,christianity,ritvik,law,powereality,homeland security,journalism,corporate history,university of california,radhanatha