Bhagavad Gita Verse 37, Chapter 11

kasmaaccha te na nameranmahaatman gareeyase brahmanopyaadikartre |
ananta devesha jagannivaasa tvamaksharam sadasattatparam yat || 37 ||
 
And why should they not bow to you, O great one, most honourable and ancient creator of even Brahmaa? You are infinite, O lord of lords, O abode of the universe, you are imperishable, that which is beyond both the manifest and unmanifest.
 
kasmaat : why
cha : and
te : you
na : not
nameran : they bow
mahaatman : O great one
gareeyase : most honourable
brahmanaha : Brahmaa
api : even
aadikartre : ancient creator
ananta : infinite
devesha : lord of lords
jagannivaasa : abode of the universe
tvam : you
aksharam : imperishable
sadasattatparam : beyond manifest and unmanifest
yat : what is
 
Arjuna continues his prayer to Ishvara’s cosmic form. Here, he justifies why people who have preference for a particular deity were seen offering their salutations to the cosmic form. He says that when we see someone superior in all respects to our deity, there is no reason not to bow to that person. Ishvara in his cosmic form is the original cause, the creator of Lord Brahmaa. Whereas Lord Brahmaa could create several universes, Ishvara creates several Lord Brahmaas. Therefore it is appropriate that people worship Ishvara.
 
Now, Arjuna described Ishvara as “sadasattatparam”. What does that mean? “Sat” in this context refers to the manifest world, things that we can perceive with our mind and our senses. “Asat” refers to the unmanifest world comprising our subconscious desires or our vaasanas. In computer terms, Sat is the hardware and asat is the software, the programming stored in memory. Our behaviour is driven by the unmanifest programming of our desires, just like a computer behaves according to its programming.
 
So, if we were to describe electricity, it would be beyond the hardware and the software. Tiny electrical currents store the software in memory, and powerful electrical currents create the hardware in a factory. Another example we have come across is gold. Five grams of gold can make a necklace, or a bangle, or a biscuit. When the necklace is manifest, all the other shapes become unmanifest. But the gold transcends, it is beyond the manifest and the unmanifest. In the same way, Ishvara transcends the manifest and the unmanifest names and forms in this universe.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 20, Chapter 11

dyaavaaprathivyoridamantaram hi vyaaptam tvayaikena dishashcha sarvaahaa |
drashtvaadbhutam roopamagram tavedam lokatrayam pravyathitam mahaatman || 20 ||
 
This distance between heaven, earth is and all directions is pervaded only by you alone. Having seen this, your fascinating and terrible form, the three worlds are afraid, O great one.
 
dyaavaaprathivyoho : heaven and earth
idam : this
antaram : distance
hi : only
vyaaptam : pervaded
tvayaa : by you
ekena : one
dishashcha : directions
sarvaahaa : all
drashtvaa : having seen
adbhutam : fascinating
roopam : form
agram : terrible
tava : your
idam : this
lokatrayam : three worlds
pravyathitam : afraid
mahaatman : O great one
 
Nowadays, computers can be trained to recognize objects and faces. They do this by first taking a snapshot of a scene, and then differentiating between what is space is what is not. If they can do this differentiation correctly, they can compare the outlines of the “not-space” with outlines of familiar objects to arrive at a conclusion such as “this is a box” and so on.
 
Our eyes work in pretty much the same way. Whenever they see space, they do three things. First, they separate whatever they see as not-space and call those things “objects”. Next, they send those objects to the mind which uses its memory to say “this is a box and a key”. But in addition to recognizing objects, the mind also automatically adds another thought. Since the box and key are separated by space, they are far away from me and therefore not a part of me.
 
Our minds are conditioned to believe that Ishvara is sitting somewhere far away. He is separated from us by space, by distance. But when Arjuna saw the cosmic form, he realized that space is not different from Ishvara. In fact, Shri Krishna himself said that space is part of his nature in the seventh chapter. Ishvara is not separate and far away from us, he is with us all the time. In fact, he only exists, “ekena”, all alone, by himself. We are not different from him. This is the main point of this shloka. Only by constantly remembering the cosmic form will we truly understand this message.
 
Now, Ishvara’s ugra roopa, his terrible form, slowly replaces his saumya roopa, his pleasant for. For every pleasant experience in the world, there has to be a corresponding unpleasant experience as well. Once you label something as “good”, there will be something “bad” by default. Seeing this frightful form of Ishvara, with fire coming out of all his mouths, all the three worlds were beginning to worry.