Chapter 10 Verse 4

by Paramesh

Om Amriteshwaryai Namaha

Chapter 10 is about the Divine Glories or the Divine powers of the Lord. In chapter 10 verse 1
Sri Kṛṣṇa says to Arjuna, I’m going to speak to you about my Divine glories for your welfare, for
your benefit. Because Kṛṣṇa doesn’t need anything. He doesn’t get any benefit from speaking
about this subject. He’s God, he’s fully complete, so he’s speaking only for our benefit to help
us.

Kṛṣṇa describes his speech as paramam vachaḥ, supreme speech, because He is the Supreme
Consciousness therefore his speech is an expression of that Divine Reality. So he’s telling us to
listen carefully.

Kṛṣṇa goes on to say that even the Gods and sages don’t know Me because I’m their source, I
created them, they’re born from me. I have no beginning and no end because I have no source
outside of myself.

The Lord is a non-dual Reality. If he were born from something other, it would imply duality,
because there would be two entities.

In the previous verse to my verse, 10.3, Kṛṣṇa says, “He who knows me as birth-less and
beginning-less, he is freed from all sins. since because he has become undeluded, and he knows
me as Loka Maheswara the Lord of the World.”

So the Lord wants us to know Him, because if we know Him, then we know who we really are,
and we become free from sins and free from suffering. We become liberated.

This sets the stage for my verse 10.4.

10.4 and the subsequent verse, 10.5, list some of the qualities and powers of the Lord. He’s
explaining everything has its origin in Him, everything therefore emanates from him, and
everything generates its power from Him. Thus we are not the doer of actions, because we
cannot act on our own without the Lord’s powers.

बुद्धिर्ज्ञानमसंमोह: क्षमा सत्यं दम: शम:।

सुखं दु:खं भवोऽभावो भयं चाभयमेव च॥४॥
4. Intelligence, wisdom, non-delusion, forgiveness, truth, control of the external organs, control
of the internal organs, happiness, sorrow, birth, death and fear and fearlessness also;

Chapter 10 is called Vibhūti yoga. Vibhūti is often translated as the Divine Glories or Divine
powers. The Lord is expressing to Arjuna the Reality that he is the One in the many and the
many in the One. He’s the power behind everything, just as electricity is the one power that is
behind the lights in our house, the refrigerator, the washing machine, the coffee maker, the rice
cooker, and our computers and phones. All these are different forms, but the one power,
electricity, illuminates them all, and allows them to function. Without electricity these appliances
are useless.

Just the same, without the Lord’s Shakti there is no energy in the universe. Without the Lord’s
Shakti there’s no Sun and no life on earth. Without the Lord’s prāna there’s no life in the body. If
there’s no prāna, there’s no vital force and there are no vital functions. The heart won’t beat and
the breath won’t come. This body we are so identified with is nothing but an inert object without
the Lord’s powers to enliven it.

Swami Chinmayānanda explains that Kṛṣṇa is conveying to Arjuna here that, “Without my
consciousness, none of these qualities can express themselves through the body.”

No emotions can be expressed, no creativity, no intellectual endeavors, no physical feats, nothing

can be expressed through the instrument of the body without the Lord’s powers.

This reminds me of one of the first questions I ever asked Amma about twenty years ago. Amma
was giving darshan in a basketball gym at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington
USA. I asked Amma, “You say that we are all One, that we are all the Paramātman, but I feel
totally separate like I’m an island. Amma looked up and pointed to the fans on the gymnasium
ceiling and she said, “You think you are the fan, but you are the power that moves the fan.”

Now we will go through all the qualities in this verse:

Buddhi-Intelligence: We may think we are quite intelligent and clever, but this power of
intellect is the Lord’s power to give and to take. Buddhi arises from Him. We cannot utter a
single word, understand a single concept, remember anything, cook a basic meal, let alone create
something complex and beautiful like music or a car, without the Lord’s power of Buddhi.

Jñānam: Knowledge. The ability to understand subtle things, the most subtle being Ātma
jñānam, knowledge of the Self. This is the Lord’s power as well. Without grace we cannot have
any knowledge of anything and without grace we definitely cannot attain Self Realization.

Asammohaḥ: Non-delusion—Having the clarity and discriminative intellect to see things as

they are presented. Simply put, asammohaḥ, is the power to see things clearly. No more
misconceptions.

Kshmā: Forgiveness and patience.

Satyam: Truthfulness.

Damaḥ: Control of the external organs, outer control.

Shamaḥ: Control of the internal organs, inner control.

Sukham: Happiness.

Dukham: Sorrow.

Bhavaḥ and abhāvaḥ. Birth and death. The creative power of the Universe that gives birth to all
things, and the withdrawing of that power, death and dissolution, are both the Lord’s.

Bhayam: Fear

Ābhayam: Fearlessness

By stating that powers or qualities such as sorrow and fear, which are often thought of as
unpleasant or negative, also come from him, He’s confirming that he is the Supreme non-dual
reality encompassing everything, not only what we view as good and pleasurable, but also what
we experience as pain and suffering, also has its origin in Him alone.

This is comforting to me because if I’m experiencing an uncomfortable emotion such as sorrow

or fear, I can find some solace in knowing that even this has its origin in God, and if I don’t
become attached to the negative feelings they will pass and dissolve into the ocean of
consciousness from which they emerged.

And how do things emerge from the Ocean of Consciousness?

In order to help us better understand how we evolved from pure consciousness to a human being,
hundreds of years ago Indian philosophers created Sankhya philosophy.
Sankhya philosophy is an attempt to map out the journey of consciousness from God to the
world. While classical Sankhya is a dualistic philosophy, non-dual schools such as advaita
Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism, have adopted the Sankhya categories to help spiritual seekers
better understand this journey of consciousness from the One to the many and back. Sankhya
philosophy and language is sprinkled throughout the Gītā.

I’ve always loved Sankhya charts so I’ve created a modified one to take us step by step through
the emanation of qualities that emerge from God.

From Kṛṣṇa as ajam and anādim, birth-less and beginning-less, emerge two divine qualities,
Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha being pure consciousness and Prakriti being the ability of that
consciousness to expand, create, and ultimately take form.

They are defined as two but they are two qualities of one Supreme Being. From Purusha and
Prakriti the human form is created and then it is infused with the power of Buddhi-intelligence,
and ahamkara-ego or the sense of “I-ness”.

From there the human being becomes engaged with the three gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas.
Sattva is associated with purity, calm, and harmony. Rajas is associated with action, dynamism,
and passion. Tamas is associated with darkness, ignorance and lethargy. These three energies
move in an interplay throughout our being.

We experience the world through the senses and the sense organs as they come into contact with
the material world made up of the five subtle elements, and five gross elements of space, air, fire,
water, and earth. These same five elements make up our own physical bodies.

Through the contact of our senses and sense organs with the world we receive and organize
information and make meaning using the power of buddhi. We create separation and
categorization with the power of ahamkara. And through the senses and sense organs themselves
we experience pleasure and pain creating likes and dislikes, attraction and aversion, and thus we
enter onto the Ferris wheel of samsāra trapped in the illusion that we are the body, the mind, the
memories, our likes and dislikes etc.

However, as Kṛṣṇa points out all of this has emerged from Him. None of this is our own.
Nothing belongs to, or was created by buddhi, ahamkara, the senses, the sense organs, or the five
elements. Even Purusha and Prakriti emerge from Kṛṣṇa
The entire Sankhya chart is an emanation of powers emerging from Kṛṣṇa Himself.

Later in the chapter in verse 10.39 Kṛṣṇa says, “Moreover, O Arjuna, whatsoever is the seed of
all beings, that I am. There is no thing moving or non-moving which can exist without Me.”

Therefore, we are all birthed from God and with God’s grace and Guru’s grace we will realize
our true identity as that One who is birth-less, without beginning, and who’s nature is Sat-Chit
Ānanda, Pure being, Pure Consciousness, and Pure bliss.
Thank you for letting me share this shloka with you.

Om Lokaḥ Samstaḥ Sukhino Bhavantu

Om Shānthi Shānthi Shānthi