Verses 11.41–11.44
सखेति मत्वा प्रसभं यदुक्तं हे कृष्ण हे यादव हे सखेति | अजानता महिमानं तवेदं मया प्रमादात्प्रणयेन वापि
sakheti matvā prasabhaṁ yaduktaṁ he kṛṣṇa he yādava he sakheti / ajānatā mahimānaṁ tavedaṁ mayā pramādāt praṇayena vāpi / / 11.41
Whatever I have rashly says from carelessness or love, addressing You as Kṛṣṇa, Yādava, my friend regarding You merely as a friend, unaware of this greatness of Yours.
यच्चावहासार्थमसत्कृतोऽसि विहारशय्यासनभोजनेषु | एकोऽथवाप्यच्युत तत्समक्षं तत्क्षामये त्वामहमप्रमेयम्
yac cāvahāsārtham asatkṛto’si vihāraśayyāsana bhojaneṣu / eko’tha va’py acyuta tat samakṣaṁ tat kṣāmaye tvām aham aprameyam / / 11.42
In whatever way I may have insulted You in fun, while at play, resting, sitting or at meals, when alone with You or in company, O Acyuta, O immeasurable One, I implore You to forgive me.
पितासि लोकस्य चराचरस्य त्वमस्य पूज्यश्च गुरुर्गरीयान् | न त्वत्समोऽस्त्यभ्यधिक: कुतोऽन्यो लोकत्रयेऽप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव
pitāsi lokasya carācarasya tvamasya pūjyaśca gururgarīyān / na tvatsamo’sty abhyadhikaḥ kuto’nyo lokatraye’py apratima-prabhāva / / 11.43
You are the father of this world, moving and unmoving. You are to be adored by this world. You are the greatest guru; there is none who exists equal to You. O Being of unequalled power, how then can there be another, superior to You in the three worlds?
तस्मात्प्रणम्य प्रणिधाय कायं प्रसादये त्वामहमीशमीड्यम् | पितेव पुत्रस्य सखेव सख्यु: प्रिय: प्रियायार्हसि देव सोढुम्
tasmātpraṇamya praṇidhāya kāyaṁ prasādaye tvāṁaham īśam īḍyam / pite’va putrasya sakhe’va sakhyuḥ priyaḥ priyāyārhasi deva soḍhum / / 11.44
Therefore, bowing down, I prostrate my body before You and crave Your forgiveness, adorable Lord. Even as a father forgives his son, a friend his friend, a lover his beloved, You should, O Deva, forgive me.
Arjuna is afraid again. Having seen what he has seen and understanding the unlimitedness of Kṛṣṇa’s form, he remembers that all this while he had treated Kṛṣṇa like a friend, so casually. Remorse fills his being. Arjuna’s worry is not fear of any reprisal, now that he knows who Kṛṣṇa is. It is guilt that bothers him. ‘I called You by Your caste name, Yādava,’ Arjuna cries out, ‘I called You, ‘Hey friend, Hey Kṛṣṇa’. I knew not Whom I was addressing, Whom I was dealing with. Please forgive me.’ - . . . Viśvarūpa Darśan Yogaḥ Krsna: The Cosmic Window 843 ... ‘How could I have done this? Please forgive me for the love I had for You that made me careless in addressing You.
Bear with me; forgive me as a father would a son, a lover his beloved and a friend, his mate. A small story: With great sincerity and seriousness a devotee of Śiva offered prayers to Śiva’s idol at his home altar every day for many years. He had no thought other than Śiva, and all he desired was to have Śiva’s vision, His darśan one day or the other. Since nothing happened year after year and he was getting old, the devotee gave Śiva an ultimatum, ‘Either you appear before me or I will seek an alternative. Before I die I need to have the Lord’s darśan so that I may be liberated.’
Śiva still made no appearance. After a few days the devotee bought and installed an idol of Viṣṇu at his altar, replacing Śiva. But he did not have the heart to throw Śiva away, and merely moved Him to one corner, telling Him, ‘See, I waited all this while patiently; all this is Your fault.’ The next morning, he lit incense as usual and placed it before the altar, this time in front of the idol of Viṣṇu. To his irritation he found that the incense smoke was drifting towards the corner where he had cast out Śiva. ‘You need no incense!’ he cried out, and covered the nose of the idol to prevent it from smelling the incense.
The next moment he felt Śiva standing in front of him, smiling. The devotee was overcome with deep guilt and overwhelming emotion. ‘Lord!’ he cried, ‘All these years I prayed to You without fail and You never appeared to me. Today, when I cast You out and covered Your nose You gave me darśan. Why?’ Śiva said: ‘It is only today that I became real to you, when you covered My nose. That is why I came to you now.’ Completion with Master is Enlightenment As his friend, Kṛṣṇa was the reality to Arjuna. He took liberties with his friend because He was so real to him. But his updated intelligence of Kṛṣṇa’s Cosmic form shook him up so badly that he was now consumed by guilt.
It was because of the intense devotion that Arjuna had for Kṛṣṇa, that Kṛṣṇa gave him the invaluable gift of His divine form. Had Kṛṣṇa not considered him worthy, Arjuna would not have seen his Cosmic form. All our life, guilt rules us from our past. Whatever we do, we do with the intelligence available to us at that point in time. Often, what we did before seems wrong to us and we feel guilty. We start doubting our self and doubting others. There is no greater sin than carrying such guilt and self-doubt. What we did was not sinful; to carry the guilt with us is sinful. When complete with the guilt pattern, we drop the guilt and self-doubt.
With the power of completion, a deep imprint is made within our self which is far more powerful than carrying the guilt and doubt. Arjuna is demonstrating to the rest of us the power of completion with the Master, the ultimate relationship; in this case his incompletion is the guilt that seems to arise from the deepest of love. Please listen. One of the important complications you carry in your life is doubt about yourself and doubt about your Master. You will project that self-doubt on your Master. Listen! Complete with that self-doubt. Only then you will have complete relation with the Master. In one sense, Arjuna does not wish to carry that self-doubt and guilt with Kṛṣṇa.
With integrity and authenticity, he completes with his guilt, his self-doubt and drops it in front of his friend, Lord and Master saying, ‘Forgive me.’ Fear concerns the future. We can never be afraid of the past; it is dead and gone. Guilt and remorse plague us from the past. We need not have done it or we could have done it differently are the incompletions that we carry in the present. One by one these negativities pour out of Arjuna and Viśvarūpa Darśan Yogaḥ Krsna: The Cosmic Window 845 ... he is getting cleansed and complete in the presence of the Master. I tell you, completion with Master is enlightenment!
If you just have completion with the Master, nothing else is required! His space will just gush into you. His space will just raise your inner space. From Friendship to Enlightened Relationship Arjuna is one of the greatest examples of sakha bhāva, friendship relationship between master and disciple. It is the immediate effect of realizing the true nature of Kṛṣṇa, especially in His destructive form, that terrifies Arjuna, that makes him afraid. Sakha bhāva is not a relationship of equals. A disciple cannot be equal to the Master. Even when a disciple becomes enlightened and in that sense at the same level as the Master, the mood of the disciple would be one of sheer gratitude.
It is after Enlightenment that a disciple realizes the true nature of the Master and the real master-disciple relationship flowers. The disciple imbibes the nature of his Master, he communes with the Master and this is how the lineage of great Masters is sustained. In true sakha bhāva, everyone is a friend, not just the Master. One turns non-judgmental and respects everyone around as an expression of divinity. In one sense this is the problem that Arjuna has in waging war with his clansmen, who are his enemies. As an extension of his sakha bhāva relationship with Kṛṣṇa, he finds it difficult to hate his clansmen enough to fight and kill them.
He gives many reasons but these reasons are only excuses. Arjuna is no coward. He is the greatest warrior. Killing is second nature to him. But destroying a friend is not. His innate devotion to Kṛṣṇa extends to the Kauravas and he finds it difficult to keep this friendship feeling aside on the battlefield. In these verses, Arjuna also expresses the fear that his space of friendship may have been tinged with dislike or enmity or anger at some time. Though he seeks forgiveness for having called Kṛṣṇa his friend or a Yādava, etc., these are not really good reasons for a good friend to apologize, even if the friend turns out to be God.
Arjuna doesn’t know yet where he stands. Kṛṣṇa has revealed Himself as the Supreme God to him. Arjuna knows that he had not always had noble thoughts about Kṛṣṇa. This is how we all treat God as well. As long as God provides us with what we want, we worship him. The moment our requests don’t get fulfilled, the Divine becomes a stone idol. It is the same with a Master. Arjunaisintransition.Herepresentsthepersonwhoisabouttomove from the intellectual seeker level to the devotee and disciple stage. In fact, he has already moved after the Vision. There is no longer any self-doubt in him about Kṛṣṇa’s identity. Until Kṛṣṇa showed him His divine form, it was theory to Arjuna. Now after the Vision, it is completely real. He has moved from sakha bhāva, friendship, to mahā bhāva, an enlightened relationship. It is this transition that brings out the residual guilt in him. Your Familiar Form