Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

In different religions sages got vision e.g. Mohamed has vision in which he met all previous prophets Jesus, Moses and Abraham, and he is supposed to see the face of Allah also, but what actually he saw when he saw god is not described in the Koran. Jesus is said to be son of god and in touch with god, but what was the nature of those interaction was not spoken much.

So the manifestation of God which is described in this chapter of BG has few parallels, if any parallels in the religions literature of the world, so many sages has experienced God in history without doubt but here the experience is not inner experience but is an outer vision. And that vision is not just imagination but is a revelation. So God is revealing how He is the universal form. So how is the universal form means and how it related with our normal understanding 

Chp11 Overview

1-4: Arjuna’srequest

5-8: Krishna’s description of the universal form

9-14: Sanjaya’s description of the UF

15-31: Arjuna’s description of the UF

32-34: Krishna’s instruction: become my instrument

35-46: Arjuna’s prayers

47-55: Pure devotion alone grants all visions –whether of UF or of two-handed form

=====================================================================================

Bg 11.5

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi
śataśo ’tha sahasraśaḥ
nānā-vidhāni divyāni
nānā-varṇākṛtīni ca

Word for word: 

śrī–bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; paśya — just see; me — My; pārtha — O son of Pṛthā; rūpāṇi — forms; śataśaḥ — hundreds; atha — also; sahasraśaḥ — thousands; nānā–vidhāni — variegated;divyāni — divine; nānā — variegated; varṇa — colors; ākṛtīni — forms; ca — also.

Translation: 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Arjuna, O son of Pṛthā, see now My opulences, hundreds of thousands of varied divine and multicolored forms.

paśya me, see My, pārtha rūpāṇi, 

Arjuna has asked to see the Rupa Ashvarya, the opulence of the form, 

Here Arjuna was told that there is not one form there are many form in it.

Within Universal Form (UF) there are many-many forms. 

Śataśo, 100s ’tha sahasraśaḥ, 1000s so in one form there are hundred and thousands of Forms.
nānā-vidhāni divyāni, there are different kinds of Forms also variegated and they are all divine,  

nānā-varṇākṛtīni ca, in UF they are Forms of different colors and shapes

When we see we see not only from eye but with intelligence also. E.g. person who were blind from birth when they got eyes from surgery what happened in their life…Or knowledge proceeds from familiar to the unfamiliar.  

Similarly Arjuna is going to get a vision for which he is having no prior connection to make. Nobody has seen anything like this earlier. So through these basic verses Krishna is going to give Arjuna some framework by which he will be able to see now…Krishna is going to give pre-description of the view that is going to follow…SP mentioned that Arjuna wanted Krishna to exhibit UF for general person to believe…

There are two problem people think those who are ordinary to be God and God to the ordinary person

End of transcription.