Songs of the Soul/Part 4/Foreword
FOREWORD
The eleventh chapter of the Bhagavadgita, of which “Vision of Visions” is a lyrical rendition interwoven with an interpretation of its spiritual significance, is the consummation of the teachings of the Book. It describes how the Lord Krishna, the Warrior-Prophet, blessed Arjuna, his devotee, with the great yogic vision of the cosmic drama of life and death, enacted on the Infinite Body of the Lord by Himself. Arjuna, still human, was perplexed, being unable to reconcile the benign aspect of the Lord with His destructive aspect: doing good to men and the world as a whole on the one hand, and bringing death and destruction to countless creatures and worlds on the other. It has been shown here that life and death are both momentary scenes in the cosmic drama, meant not to hurt or please anybody, but designed to afford infinite opportunities to the Lord’s children for the attainment of higher and higher states of evolution through apparently unpleasant disturbances caused by great changes. The relative value of life and death in this Drama, which is a dream in comparison with the Reality of the Lord, is the same. This vision represents the great Cosmic Law, as seen not from the point of view of finite creatures, but from that of the Lord Himself. Hence this allows no room for the finite questioning of Arjuna as to whether the Lord is benign or destructive. To him, to destroy life is not an absence of benignity, nor to give life a presence of it, as is the case with us. The Lord views life and death as forms of change only, according to His Cosmic Law. A law is law. It has been His nature, and always will be. There is no question about benignity or otherwise.
Nevertheless, it describes the Lord as leading this Cosmos with all its individuals to higher and higher stages of unfoldment. Every individual is expected to do his duty unattached,with the consciousness of an intelligent agent merely, that he can reach those higher stages easily, and finally be in tune with that Great Being.