July 31, 2025
yad-yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā
tat-tad evā ’vagaccha tvaṁ mama tejoṁ ’śasaṁbhavaṁ (X-41)
athavā bahunai ’tena kiṁ jñātena tavā ’rjuna
viṣṭabhyā ’ham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (X-42)
X/41. Whatever being there is, glorious, prosperous or powerful, that know thou to be a manifestation of a part of my splendour.
X/42. But, of what avail to thee is the knowledge of all these details, O Arjuna? I
exist, supporting this whole world by one part of myself.
Swamiji's Commentary
We can only know or guess His Existence by His manifestation. Mr. J. Louis Orton in his ‘Hypnotism Made Practical’ says: “A lecturer began to address his audience thus: ‘What is mind? Nobody knows. We only know the manifestations of mind.’ The lecturer might have said just as truly: ‘What is matter? Nobody knows. We know only the manifestations of matter.’ What do we know except through manifestations?” This question drove the ancient eastern mystic into the depths of his own being.
God’s divine glory is spread out before us in this manifest universe. God’s divine potency within the earth, in the rays of the sun and the showers of rain, bestows prosperity on us all. God’s divine power (call it love) sustains the entire creation, keeping the stars and planets at the precise distance from one another conducive to the welfar` of all, and guides them along their individual orbits in accordance with his eternal law. His power creates, sustains and dissolves (redeems).
Yet all the manifestations do not exhaust God, either spatially or spiritually. We can go to the limits of this universe, but we shall still find God spread out beyond. We can dive ever deeper into the heart of each atom of matter, only to discover with unabated wonderment that we have entered a greater realm of his power and his glory. For the manifest universe is the expression of a very small part of his power and glory. May he reveal himself to us! For only he can – when our mind stops functioning. It is God we are seeing, it is God we are living in. Unfortunately we try to grasp this truth with our puny little mind and senses, and all we can clasp is a pebble.