Bhagavagd Gita - Session 33- Track 3306
As Sri Aurobindo says: “With the divine eyes when you look at the world, you must see first of all the sovereign Lord everywhere; you should see the one Self which is equal everywhere; and thirdly, you should see the masks and see behind the mask how much the force has manifested, what degree of manifestation, how it was tending towards the higher and higher and what we call ‘Vibhuti’ is nothing but a very special becoming when some kind of explosion takes place.”
In a sense as I said everything is a Vibhuti. What is not a Vibhuti? Everything is a special manifestation of the Divine. But we call Vibhuti in a special sense, when that explosion takes place, and there is some kind of a superb manifestation of a quality or power or personality or virtue or whatever, and there is a presence of something that is very great, viṣeṣa vibhuti, that which is special becoming, specially great: that is what is called “Vibhuti”, some kind of perfection, not entire perfection, perfection in the sense of ‘maximum’, not in the sense of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘unity’. Whenever there is a movement which seems ‘maximum’ at a given time, where the potency has increased to the maximum degree, and where the actualised values are enhanced to the maximum level.
Comment: In one field?
Whatever field…yes, that’s right; it’s not the totality. In whatever you have seen in the world, there are different departments, different domains, wherever you see potency rising to what we can call: ‘maximum’…(I told you when it is ‘maximum’, it is the limit of a field)…wherever you find maximum potency and wherever you find a further increase to actualise values, whatever values have been already actualised, when those values are enhanced still further by some addition, by some increase: this is the mark of Vibhuti.
Now, it is this definition that we should keep in mind when Sri Krishna now describes the Vibhutis. But even before describing Vibhutis Sri Krishna tells us:
aham ātmā guḍākeśa sarvabhūtāśayasthitaḥ |
This is the very first statement, where He says Himself, His own Self, which is equal in everywhere, which is the origin of everything that you must perceive first: aham ātmā guḍākeśa…(guḍākeśa, is the epithet of Arjuna, one who has conquered sleep):
aham ātmā guḍākeśa sarvabhūtāśayasthitaḥ |
“I am seated in everything that becomes.” So, ‘first you see that’, in a sense you might say, “I am Myself the first Vibhuti”:
aham ātmā guḍākeśa sarvabhūtāśayasthitaḥ |
aham ādiś ca madhyaṁ ca bhūtānām anta eva ca ||20|| (X)
“I am the beginning, I am the middle, I am the end of everything.” So, before you can see Vibhutis in the world, you must see first of all the Divine everywhere. That is the first condition of this perception of Vibhuti.
Now, comes the enumeration…at a first sight it might seem that this enumeration is pell-mell without any kind of order, but if you examine thoroughly, this whole list which is given, you will find there are three important descriptions given here: the description of that which is superhuman, description of gods, description of invisible objects, invisible realities. On the other end, description of great physical objects: that which supra-physical, that which superhuman, that which is invisible, the supra-physical worlds, and then on the other end the physical world and object of the physical world, and then the human beings. You will see these three descriptions coming now and then.
So, first of all the gods:
ādityānām ahaṁ viṣṇur “Among the sons I am Vishnu”.
According to the Vedic knowledge, there are twelve ādityā(s): Vishnu, Varuna, Pushan, Aṃśu, Dhāntri, Indra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Mitra, Parjanya, Tvastā: These are the twelve Adityas which have been described in the Vedic knowledge. “Out of these twelve I am Vishnu”, that is to say: if you want to see the ‘maximum’ of Aditya, then you will find him in Vishnu.
jyotiṣāṁ ravir aṁśumān, “Among the lights I am the bright Sun.”
marīcir marutām. There are 49 Maruts according to Vedic knowledge of which Marichi is one kind of a special kind of wind, so “I am specially Marichi among all the Maruts.
nakṣatrāṇām ahaṁ śaśī, “Among the constellation, I am śaśī, I am the Moon.”