SRIMAD MAHABHAGAVATHAM : 3.2 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday,  August 18, 2021. 7 : 05. AM. 
CHAPTER-3 : Kapila’s Instructions to Devahuti - 2.
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We also have in our scriptures the description of the Mahapurusha, Purushottama. Ato’smi loke vede ca prathita? puru?ottama? (B.G. 15.18), says Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the Bhagavadgita. We cannot describe Him in any other manner except as Purushottama, the best of all purushas. Here the word ‘purusha’ does not connote a male being, but means an inclusiveness of all particulars, bereft of the distinction of male and female. We cannot say whether God is male or female, because that majesty is so complete that we cannot describe God section-wise or partially in terms of social connotations.

How does Maharishi Kapila describe the majesty of God, so that we may contemplate on Him? Yesterday I mentioned the Zen technique of attention paid to minute particulars of anything which becomes the object of concentration. Here is a similar description of meditation on every minute part of the body. The visualisation of God rises gradually from His feet to the cosmic apex of His head, which is all-pervasive. There are Sanskrit stotras which are called Vishnu Padadikeshantavarnanam—or, in a reverse way, Vishnu Keshadipadantavarnanam. From the conceived hair of the Supreme Person down to the feet, and in the other order, from the feet to the Supreme head with His hair, is a kind of vipasana meditation of a mysterious type, taking the mind from top to bottom and from bottom to top. We are looking at God from head to foot in all His finery, completeness, beauty, ability and omnipotence.

Because of the magnificence and the might of God, the mind may not be in a position to conceive the whole of Him in one stroke. Even when we look at an ordinary individual, we cannot visualise the entire person at one stroke. We see only some part of the person for the purpose of our practical activity, and concentration on every limb is not done, generally speaking. But in order to attract the attention of the mind to the beauty and perfection in every part of the body of God, it is said that everything is madhuram. Adharam-madhuram—everything is sweetness, like sugar candy, where we cannot say that any part is not sweet.

In the case of an ordinary mortal, there is a distinction made between the functions of the head, heart, lungs, feet, hands, and so on, but in the case of the Mighty Person, such distinction is not made. Any part is as good as any other part. We cannot say that His feet are inferior to His head, as no such comparison is possible in the case of God’s Personality. His limbs are described for the purpose of meditation. Every part is capable of doing the function of any other part. This is how we have it in the Bhagavadgita and in the Veda. Sarvata? p?ni-p?dam tat sarvato’k?i-?iro-mukham, sarvata? ?rutimal loke sarvam ?v?tya ti??hati (B.G. 13.13): Every part of His body is eyes and ears, every part is mouth, every part is feet, every part is hands. He can work with His feet, not merely with His hands; He can see with His toes and speak with His nose, because every function is an attribute of every part of God. It is not a limitation of concept as in our own personality where one organ cannot know the function of another organ. There, every organ is all organs because God is All-in-all.

To be continued ....

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