Questions & Answers QUESTION: After seeing the Visvarupa (Cosmic Form) of Krishna, why did Arjuna find it impossible to stand it and wanted to see Krishna’s ordinary form only?
June 2021
MAHARAJ: The answer is given in the Gita itself. Arjuna was overawed to see the cosmic Form in which he witnessed the whole cosmic process of creation, preservation and destruction; eternity in all its phases of past, present and future, in one instant of insight. His mind was not then prepared to have that all-embracing vision. So he prayed for that higher insight to be withdrawn and wished to be allowed to have his ordinary consciousness, in which he saw Krishna along with other things of the mundane plane.
The Vedanta Kesari
38
Pariprasna
Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991) was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published There is a great lesson conveyed through this. in book form as Spiritual Quest: There are many spiritual aspirants who are in a great Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a hurry for spiritual experiences. But they forget that selection from this book. unless one has the capacity to contain these experiences, it is better that they are withheld, as indeed it is done in the dispensation of the wise Providence. Technically it is said that one must become more and more Sattvika if these experiences are to be harmoniously integrated with one’s consciousness. To be Sattvika means to develop the capacity and quality of the nervous system and the brain to stand the impact of these experiences. To take an example, an electric bulb that is made to stand current at 250 volts cannot take 500 volts. It will be burnt up. So also our nervous system, which has been made by nature to stand the ordinary natural experiences of life, will be put to undue strain when higher experiences crowd on it in its unprepared, natural condition, that is, before it has gradually become more and more Sattvika. In the life of Sri Ramakrishna we come across several devotees who reacted in a manner similar to Arjuna when the Great Master brought on them higher experiences by an act of his will. When Sri Ramakrishna was about to induce the experience of the Nirvikalpa state in no less a person than Narendra (as Swami Vivekananda was known in his early days), the Swami reacted in great fright, even like Arjuna. In the case of some other devotees of the Master too, the same unpreparedness to stand higher experiences was evinced when the Master induced in them such experiences by an act of will. Mathur Babu wanted to have the state of Bhava, devotional inebriation. But within a few days of his experiencing it, he prayed that he might be restored to his old state. Hriday, Sri Ramakrishna’s constant attendant, also wanted very much the experience of Bhava Samadhi, but not being able to contain it, was soon praying to be restored to his original state. Among those devotees who attained to Bhava Samadhi on the Kalpataru day was one named Vaikuntha Nath Sanyal whose experiences are recorded in Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master. He, too, unable, to contain the mood had to pray to the Master to put him again into his ordinary consciousness. All these show that spiritual moods and experiences of an exalted type can be contained and absorbed in harmony with one’s earthly consciousness only when men have developed a highly Sattvika nature. From these recent examples we can understand why Arjuna could not stand the experience of the cosmic Form of the Lord and preferred to experience His human form.
