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TEXT 48 na veda-yajnadhyayanair na danair
SYNONYMS  na--never;
veda--Vedic study; yajna--sacrifice; adhyayanaih--study;
na danaih--by charity; na--never; ca--also; kriyabhih--by
pious activities; na tapobhih--by serious penances; ugraih--severe;
evam--thus; rupah--form; sakyah--can be seen; aham--I;
nr-loke--in this material world; drastum--to see; tvat--you;
anyena--by another; kuru-pravira--O best among the Kuru warriors.
TRANSLATION O best of
the Kuru warriors, no one before you has ever seen this universal form
of Mine, for neither by studying the Vedas, nor by performing sacrifices,
nor by charities or similar activities can this form be seen. Only you
have seen this.
PURPORT The divine vision
in this connection should be clearly understood. Who can have divine vision?
Divine means godly. Unless one attains the status of divinity as a demigod,
he cannot have divine vision. And what is a demigod? It is stated in the
Vedic scriptures that those who are devotees of Lord Visnu are demigods.
Those who are atheistic, i.e., who do not believe in Visnu, or who only
recognize the impersonal part of Krsna as the Supreme, cannot have the
divine vision. It is not possible to decry Krsna and at the same time have
the divine vision. One cannot have the divine vision without becoming divine.
In other words, those who have divine vision can also see like Arjuna.
The Bhagavad-gita
gives the description of the universal form, and this description was unknown
to everyone before Arjuna. Now one can have some idea of the visva-rupa
after this incident; those who are actually divine can see the universal
form of the Lord. But one cannot be divine without being a pure devotee
of Krsna. The devotees, however, who are actually in the divine nature
and who have divine vision, are not very much interested to see the universal
form of the Lord. As described in the previous verse, Arjuna desired to
see the four-handed form of Lord Krsna as Visnu, and he was actually afraid
of the universal form.
In this
verse there are some significant words, like veda-yajnadhyayanaih,
which refers to studying Vedic literature and the subject matter of sacrificial
regulations. Veda refers to all kinds of Vedic literature, namely
the four Vedas (Rg, Yajus, Sama and Atharva) and the
eighteen Puranas, the Upanisads and Vedanta-sutra.
One can study these at home or anywhere else. Similarly, there are sutras,
Kalpa-sutras and Mimamsa-sutras, for studying the method of
sacrifice. Danaih refers to charity which is offered to a suitable
party, such as those who are engaged in the transcendental loving service
of the Lord, the brahmanas and the Vaisnavas. Similarly, pious activities
refers to the agni-hotra, etc., t he prescribed duties of the different
castes. Pious activities and the voluntary acceptance of some bodily pains
are called tapasya. So one can perform all these, can accept bodily
penances, give charity, study the Vedas, etc., but unless he is
a devotee like Arjuna, it is not possible to see that universal form. Those
who are impersonalists are also imagining that they are seeing the universal
form of the Lord, but from Bhagavad-gita we understand that the
impersonalists are not devotees. Therefore they are unable to see the universal
form of the Lord.
There are
many persons who create incarnations. They falsely claim an ordinary human
to be an incarnation, but this is all foolishness. We should follow the
principles of Bhagavad-gita, otherwise there is no possibility of
attaining perfect spiritual knowledge. Although Bhagavad-gita is
considered the preliminary study of the science of God, still it is so
perfect that one can distinguish what is what. The followers of a pseudo
incarnation may say that they have also seen the transcendental incarnation
of God, the universal form, but that is not acceptable because it is clearly
stated here that unless one becomes a devotee of Krsna, one cannot see
the universal form of God. So one first of all has to become a pure devotee
of Krsna; then he can claim that he can show the universal form of what
he has seen. A devotee of Krsna cannot accept false incarnations or followers
of false incarnations.
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