The desire to transcend the mundane routine of worldly life is itself indicative of a steering towards the spiritual path. In Arjuna’s case, his very reluctance to wage a war with his own kith and kin makes him restless to seek a solution to his predicament, pointed out Swamini Satyavratananda in a discourse.
Krishna realises that Arjuna needs instruction on the esoteric and spiritual aspects of human life and endeavour at this point of time. The restlessness has to subside and then the mind would become receptive, and be ready to imbibe the far-reaching import of His teaching.
The Lord’s origin and glory is not known to any including the realised sages and the celestial beings. But the Lord is aware of the origin of all since He is the ultimate source. His infinite nature continues to baffle all and is never to be caught or grasped, though Vedic seers and rishis have had glimpses of His unlimited glory revealed in their consciousness.
The Vedas proclaim that the Lord’s yogic power is unmanifest and beyond human comprehension or imagination. But this universe known as His Vibhuti is His manifestation and is the only way the human mind can aspire to know His unlimited glory. The Lord’s yoga is His unmanifest and infinite glory and He makes Himself manifest when he creates this Vibhuti and though He is birthless He is born in different forms for the upkeep of His Vibhuti. The former aspect shows Him as Nirguna — without form or attributes; the latter is His Saguna — when His formlessness is transformed by His Sankalpa into the universe with its nama-roopa variety. In His creation is subsumed all experiences, inclusive of joy and sorrow.
Individual experiences and the dualities of pain and sorrow, heat and cold, success and failure, praise and blame, etc., are of His creation. But He is not responsible for the individual joy or sorrow which is a result of one’s past actions and vasanas.
When the mind learns to appreciate the entire creation — the gross and the subtle alike — as the very form of the Lord and without personal bias, it gains maturity. Accepting all this as part of world order, one should learn to remain distant from the vicissitudes at the emotional and intellectual level.
